Sporting notions of present days and past

MORE CRICKET 165
the two glasses of sherry
?
The most dangerous,
insidious component of the lot is, I believe, the
very innocent one—viz., ice in lumps
,
when set
a-floating in a cup which really is a cup, a vessel
of deep draught
.
You may not feel thirsty, or
say so, or have been thirsty and quite heroically
striven to drown the appetite or drinkatite, and
cried a go. In other words
,
the bar has been put
up, and then when the most delectable fluid
quencher offers temptation
,
what makes good
resolution treat itself ? What ? Why, the ice
with its confounded tinkle, tinkle
,
against the
side of the big pot. These blessed lumps of ice
first break your vows for you, and then compel
you to pull instead of sip,
,
with your head well
back, and a free flow down the gullet. With
that same insidious ice, tinkling in its own artful
way against the goblet
'
s side, the soda-water in
proportion due, and the lemon, also borage and
cucumber
,
with perhaps a strawberry or two,
clispense inviting fragrance
.
Felixir makes a
capital cup
;
it is palatable
,
also refreshing and
" pegging up " as a summer or any other season
article to " take for " whatever excuse for a glass
may be needed
.
By the way, I wonder did Mr
Sheldrake ever hear of what was formerly called,
in his county
,
the teetotallers
'
wager? Down his
way was a fine bowler who played for Hertford
Town and the county
,
and was a good steeple-
chase rider, too—a Mr Brown
,
almost the most
temperate sportsman I ever knew. He defined
extreme moderation in gambling and boozing as
playing single wicket single
-
handed on a hot day
for a bottle of ginger beer
,
the loser to have first
drink.
I am afraid that many of the present genera-
f
At