expenses of the Stock Purse, excepting the £15 applied annually towards the charge for the anniversary dinner. This proposal will occasion a saving of from £80 to £100 in our expenditure, and we have acceded to it, subject to the approval of this Meeting. We must add, in justice to Mr. Dark, that he suggested it as being more respectful to the Club than if he had contritributed any fixed sum annually to the Red Book.' "We may safely refer to the list of Candidates as a convincing proof of our prosperity, containing, as it does, the names of many Gentlemen who are well known to be friendly to all British sports. "The Committee derive the greatest satisfaction from being able to offer so favorable a report to the meeting, after the irreparable loss the Club sustained last year. This being the first anniversary since Mr. Aislabie's death, they cannot avoid making some allusion to his eminent services. In attempting, however, to do honor to the memory of their much valued friend, the Committee are perfectly aware that no panegyric can be wanting to induce Members to do ample justice to the manner in which he performed the duties of his office. He was for nearly twenty years the Honorary Secretary of the Club, and was not more distinguished for his unwearied zeal and assiduity in promoting the noble game of Cricket, than for the many amiable points in his character. By his affable demeanour and general popularity he became a rallying-point to all Cricketers, and his loss will be felt, not merely by the frequenters of Lord's Ground, but by all who enjoyed his society. Previous to his decease we adopted resolutions assuring him of the painful interest his illness had excited, and when informed of that sad event a letter of condolence was written to his widow, who did not long survive him, and several Members of the Club would have attended his funeral, had not the offer been respectfully declined, in accordance with his strict injunctions. His bust remains in the Pavilion as a memorial of the worth and of the esteem in which he was held; and Members may be assured that the Committee will strive to emulate him in their exertions to promote the interests of the Club, which they are confident will maintain its well-merited reputation, and its subscribers be looked up to, not merely as the framers of the laws, but as setting an example in their support and patronage of Cricket." The Report was unanimously agreed to. RULES OF THE CLUB. The following Rules were passed nem. com. :— 1. The anniversary dinner shall take place on the first Thursday in May, when the season will commence: the sum of £15 shall be allowed out of the Stock Purse towards the expenses of it. 2. The practice-days shall begin on the following day, and continue every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, to the end of July. 3. Eight men and six boys, to be paid by Mr. Dark, the proprietor of the ground, shall attend on all practice-days, and be under his general superintendence, subject, however, to the control of the Committee, who shall appoint, suspend, or remove the same. Six wickets shall be pitched. 4. Each Member shall subscribe £3 for the season, payable at the commencement of it; 10s. out of this sum shall be appropriated to the Stock Purse. 5. Every new Member shall pay £1 entrance to the Stock Purse, in addition to his subscription, and shall be requested to give a permanent order to some banker or agent in London to pay £3 annually to Mr. Dark. 6. The ballot for new Members shall be held only on Mondays and Thursdays during the season, in the presence of one Member of the Committee. They shall commence immediately after dinner in the Pavilion. 7. They shall be held at other times in the Tennis Court, on any day and at any hour when nine Members are assembled, at which place the ballot may proceed in the absence of a Member of the Committee; but the names must be taken down by the proprietor of the ground, who will be in attendance. 8. Two black balls shall exclude, and not less than nine Members shall constitute a ballot. 9. The name and address of the Candidate, with the names of his proposer and seconder, must have been put up and exposed for the three days preceding any ballot in the Pavilion or in the Tennis Court, as the case may be, before he can be ballotted for, except at the anniversary meeting in May, when Candidates may be proposed, seconded, and ballotted for without any previous notice. 10. Notice of resignation must be signified by letter, addressed "To the Secretary of the Marylebone Club, Lord's Cricket Ground," before the commencement of the season, otherwise each Member resigning must pay his subscription for that season: all preceding arrears must also be paid. 11. The President of each year shall nominate his successor at the anniversary dinner. 12. In the absence of the President, the chair shall be taken by the Treasurer; in the absence of both, by the Secretary; and in the absence of all three, by the Members present of the longest standing in the Club. 13. The President, Treasurer, and Secretary, together with twelve Gentlemen chosen annually by the Members at their anniversary dinner in May, shall form a Committee for the Management of the Club, and for the decision of all questions relating to the rules: three to be a quorum. 14. Two Gentlemen out of the Committee shall be appointed Auditors annually, at the same time and place, by the Members, to pass the Stock Purse and Match Fund accounts. 15. No Gentleman who is not a Member of the Club shall be admitted to the Pavilion, unless introduced by the President, Treasurer, or Secretary, who are exofficio Members of the Committee, and then only for one day at a time. COMMITTEE. The Honorary Secretary (Roger Kynaston, jun., Esq.) proposed that the following Noblemen and Gentlemen be appointed a Committee for the Management of the Club for the present year, in addition to the President, Treasurer, and Hon. Secretary, which was carried unanimously. The appointment of Auditors was likewise agreed to nem. com. MATCHES FOR THE SEASON. May 15, at Lord's.-Marylebone Club against St. John's Wood. May 18, at Cambridge.-The Club against the University of Cambridge. May 22, at Lord's.-The Club, with two Players of the Ground, against the Gentlemen of the Clapton Club. May 25, at Oxford.-The Club against the University of Oxford. May 29, at Haileybury.-The Club against Haileybury College. May 29, at Lord's.-Two select Elevens of England. June 5, at Lord's.-The Club and Ground, with Wenman, against County of Sussex. June 8, at Chatham.-The Club, with two of the Ground, against the Garrison of Chatham, with Adams and Hillyer. June 12, at Lord's.-The Club against the University of Cambridge-Return Match. June 19, at Lord's.-The Club and Ground against Northern Counties. June 24, at Eton.-The Club against the present Etonians. June 26, at Lord's.-The Club against the Gentlemen of Hants. June 29, at Lord's.-The Club against the Gentlemen of Rugby School. July 3, at Lord's.-Gentlemen of England against Gentlemen of Kent. July 6, at Lord's.-The Club against the University of Oxford-Return Match. July 17, at Lord's.-Gentlemen against Players. July 24, at Lord's.-The Club and Ground, with Pilch and Box, against All England. RETURN MATCHES. August 7, at Canterbury.-Kent against England. August 10, at Canterbury.-Gentlemen of England against Gentlemen of Kent. August 14, at Brighton.-The Club and Ground, with Wenman, against the County of Sussex. August 17, at Kent.-Match for the benefit of Wenman. August 21, at Leicester.-The Club and Ground against Northern Counties. August 24, at Nottingham.-The Club and Ground against Nottingham Trent Bridge Club. August 28, at Southampton.-The Club against Gentlemen of Hants. The Committee hold themselves at liberty to make any alteration in the days fixed for the Matches which they may think fit, or to substitute others in their stead: and they beg to give notice to the Members of other Clubs who may be desirous of securing the services of any of the professional players at Lord's in County Matches, that the latter are at the absolute disposal of the Marylebone Club during the whole of the season. REMARKS UPON SHOOTING, &c., WITH ANECDOTES. REMINISCENCES OF RAINHAM HALL-THE RECTOR'S STORY. PURSUING the promised course of our observations on Shooters and Shooting, it is curious to observe—and I believe every old Sportsman will bear me out in the assertion-that the common partridge of the present day is much wilder and more difficult of approach than it was five-and-twenty years ago. In proportion as the detonator has added to the facility of killing birds on the wing, circumstances have at the same time conspired to render a number of shots in a given time more difficult to obtain as far as partridge-shooting is concerned; the chief of which may be summed up as follows-i. e., first, the more frequent pursuit of them; secondly, the substituting men for the stanch pointer; and thirdly, above all, the great improvements in the cultivation of land; for in the latter instance we now meet with light clean fences (shewing that the same skill and industry has visited them as the lands they inclose), instead of the wide old hedgerows full of thorns and rubbish, into which birds when harassed were almost sure to betake themselves for shelter, and in which they would remain till driven out by dogs or beaters. The partridge being a short-winged bird, and not furnished for very excursive flights, following the stronger impulse of nature, greatly depended upon secreting itself and other efforts of cunning; but the hiding places being in a great measure removed, it has adapted itself to circumstances, and now seems to rest solely for security to its legs and wings. Instead of the rough wheat-stubble left by the sickle, with occasional patches of thistles or long grass, the scythe now makes a clean sweep, and that good old-fashioned covert is for the most part done away with: besides which, and worse than all, the turnipfields are no longer the strongholds they used to be since drilling and ridging up have been the order of the day. Under the old broadcast plan of sowing turnips, the young birds (excepting down the furrows) could never run straight, and were constantly stopping: now the drills form arcades, down which they are tempted to race; and having by chance discovered, the first time they are pursued, that this has tended to their escape, are ever after sure to adopt it; so that now, in twenty acres of turnips in which in the olden time two guns might have been employed for hours, if six or eight shots are got between them it is quite as much as can be expected. Again, the birds are never at rest; the fashion of the day has decided against them. In August, the Nobleman or Gentleman of landed property returns to his country quarters, having invited a choice few to partake of his rural hospitalities: if the manors are extensive, he can provide for two parties, three guns being now commonly sent out together, and from the first day, so long as the weather continues fine, they are constantly at it. In about six weeks partridge-shooting is virtually over. We live in a quick age indeed nothing but the cream of the thing is now tolerated by any one, who, under the fear of being thought a slow fellow, cannot stoop to seek or work for his own amusements, but must have them brought to him. 'Tis but a few months since the old Earl of Leicester-better known in his sporting career as Mr. Coke-died, and in a little biographical sketch of him which appeared in the Norwich Mercury, and which we presume was written by its talented Editor, who in days gone by had often shared his hospitality and witnessed his prowess, we were told that on one occasion, when in the prime of life, some forty or perhaps fifty years ago, he (Mr. Coke) bagged 82 partridges out of 86 shots under any circumstances a most extraordinary performance: but if Mr. Coke was now again in the flesh, and in his twenty-eighth year, and armed again with his flint-and-steel, is there any sporting man now living who would not lay 1000 to 20 against such another performance? The lands over which he sported when this feat was performed in all probability had not had a gun fired over them at the time he took the field; and look at the condition of those lands over which he then sported: the rough places have been made smooth; the stanch pointer, who, when he had found a covey, seemed endued with the power of pinning the birds down till you trod them up, mounting high above your head, and offering for a second or two, before they could turn for their projected flight, a point blank shot, something like a swinging signboard, has given place to a long-legged fellow with a retriever in a string, who sets the birds running from their resting-places, and eventually succeeds in driving them up straight away before you, and not giving you one tithe part of the single shots that used to be had under the old system. Now, we do not mourn over this change, but rather rejoice, because, with the increased number of shooting men and the great improvement in the materiel made use of, did the sportsman of the present day take all other advantages as in days gone by, the partridge ere this would have become rara avis. In attempting to delineate the different style of shooting practised by professors of the art, no better illustration at present offers than the recollection of what I witnessed in a public exhibition more than twenty years ago, Squire Osbaldestone and Mr. Shoebridge being opponents. It was a Match that excited a great deal of interest at the time, and after a good jolting on a bad hack on a burning hot day in May or June some fifteen miles from Hyde Park Corner, for the first and only time in my life I stood to see two men shoot at pigeons from a trap. Who won or lost on that occasion matters not, as there was not above a bird difference; and as they, like most other men (for be it known the distance was thirty yards from the trap), killed the easier shots and missed most of the difficult ones, chance (the great referee when a halter or a kingdom has been the stake) might decide it: but the different style of doing the same thing could not be lost to the most superficial observer. And firstly of the Squire there he was at the scratch before he was wanted, handling arms, presenting arms, putting his right foot forward, and stamping with his foot as if to see whether the ground was good taking off, or more perhaps in the way I have seen an old plover trying with her foot to gammon a worm after a shower of rain to pop his head up: then again, his neck or his neckcloth seemed too tight from the variety of twistings of his head, and his tongue kept pace with other pantomimic motions, and the moment he had fired in offering of strange bets, and with indiscriminate badinage did he oftimes set the field in a roar, and which to me afforded the only charm of the day. Now for Mr. Shoebridge: when summoned, he walked forth in a careless unaffected manner, perfectly easy, but evidently ready: the string was pulled, bang went his gun, and he returned to the tent as if he was only a quiet and unconcerned observer. Now the inference I drew, right or wrong, was this: if I wanted a shooting companion (with leave), I would take Shoebridge; but if a difference of opinion could only be settled at twelve paces, and I was set up at one end of this chivalrous line to maintain my own side of the question (in reference to my own personal safety), I should take the Squire, with his well-known pluck into the bargain. Having in my last letter mentioned a man who with all appliances was not able to acquire the act of shooting flying, I shall now-illustrating how diversified are the gifts of Nature to our species, mental and bodily-introduce one, who, although curtailed of his original fair proportions, shoots well: his name is Fisk, and he is gamekeeper to Thomas Farr, Esq. of Beccles in Suffolk. This man, now no chicken, having lost his right arm (just below the elbow) at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo, still takes the field, killing game for his master, who has declined some years. As a substitute for the lost part of the limb, he has rigged out a jury forearm of wood, with a large iron hook at the end, for the purpose, as occasion may require, of carrying game, or spoiling the beauty of or fastening in the neckcloth of a refractory poacher. But the way in which he shoots-the most remarkable part of the story-yet remains to be told. Carrying his double-barrelled gun in his left-hand (and as it may be with two or three hares dangling upon the hook), he brings the gun up to his right shoulder, and then |