The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-04-16 00:00:00

ihur ygOon Corrapubtni.

tWe deem it right to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.J

No more certain sign of the approach of summer
could be discovered than the detailed announce-
ments just now being made in the newspapers
under the heading "Prospects of the Cricket
Season." Immediately football is done with
cricket begins, and although it is not until the
first week in May that the orthodox cricket
season will commence, thousands of players in all
parts of the country are already wielding the
willow and disporting themselves with the ball.
The present year will be peculiarly interesting to
all connected with the game, because the Mary-
lebone Cricket Club celebrates its centenary
during the summer. The event will be signalised
in fitting fashion by a whole week's cricket at
Lords in the middle of June, there being on the
first three days a match between the M.C.C. and
England, and on the last a Veterans' Match. On
the,Wednesday evening there will be a banquet,
attended by the best-know-n representatives of the
game who can be gathered together. Invitations
will he sent to all the surviving past presidents
of the Marylebone Club, the presidents of the
counties represented at the annual meeting,
of secretaries, the presidents of the two university
club, the Agents-General for Victoria, New
South Wales, and South Australia, and all ,yvho
have, on at least two occasions, appeared for the
Gentlemen against the Players at Lord's. Such
a truly representative gathering will testify to
the world in striking fashion the attachment of
Englishmen to the great pastime which is truly
called the "national game.'
It is not only, however, the centenary celebra-
tion of the Marylebone Club which will occupy
the attention of cricketers during the summer.
This year we shall have no Australian team to
make the interest in the pastime an in-
ternational one, but there will be an abundance
of good matches, as the counties have arranged
very full programmes. Time was when it was
only the doings of what are known as the "first-
class counties" which attracted much attention,
but now the "second-class counties" are securing
their share. Enthusiasts for the game are
rejoiced at this, because it leads to the
belief that gradually will be secured the
playing every season of a regular series of
matches between the minor counties in the
same way that a systematic programme is carried
out by the major counties. Should this system
be established, there is little doubt that some of
the minor counties will develope qualities which
will entitle them to rank with the first class;
and with their improvement the game generally
will be improved also. That is a matter upon
which all concerned would deserve to be con-
gratulated. It is an honest game, this cricket of
ours, and one that merits all encouragement,
even at the hands of those who never touch bat
or ball. The fine exercise it provides for the
thousands of our young men is productive of
much physical good; and, unless it were possible
to believe that the degeneracy of the race would
be an advantage' it must continue to be recog-
nised that cricket has claims upon us all.
_

Another form of exercise wliich has great and
growing attractions for our young men is that
of cycling, which though, unlike cricket, not con-
fined to the summer, is best enjoyed in the drier
months of the year. During the Easter holidays,
many a machine which had been carefully kept
free from rust during the winter, saw the dust
of the roads once more; and those who had
been cooped up behind counters and on office-
stools welcomed the break in their working
hours to career on bicycle and tricycle to towns
far distant from their own. This is one of the
features of cycling which, perhaps, best entitle
it to praise. It provides an easy means for visit-
ing places which would otherwise be inaccessible,
and there is thus a combination of profit with
pleasure; for the greater acquaintance a young
man can thus gain with the various parts of his
country broadens his ideas, and, if he be at all of
a thoughtful turn, improves his mind. At one
time the ladies had the objection to cycling that
it was a selfish pursuit in which only those of
tho other sex could indulge. But theintroduc-
tion of an improved form of tricycle changed all
that; and now not only can .ladies dis-
port themselves upon wheels with as
much pleasure as men, but, by means
of the "tandem" and " sociable " machines,
can actually accompany their brothers,
their sweethearts, or their husbands on
the ride. This is a development of the
"wheeling world" which has tended to greatly
increase its popularity; and he would be a bold
prophet whowould attempt to foretell to what a
height that popularity will yet reach.
Despite all the accounts of bad trade in
America and Australia which occasionally reach
us residents in the old country, a very large
number of our fellow-citizens continue to believe
in the possibility of finding fortune across the
seas. The "emigrant season has now com-
menced for the year, and it is stated by those
acquainted with the circumstances that it pro-
mises to be an unusually lively one. Hundreds
of agricultural labourers have already started,
and artizans of all kinds are following them
across the Atlantic, for, as is always the case,
the large majority of emigrants are bound for
the United States and Canada. The latter is
advancing in popularity as a field for emigra-
tion, since the great corn-growing grounds of
Manitoba have been thrown more open
to the world by the opening of the
Canadian Pacific Railway. As Englishmen,
this is a result in which-we cannot but rejoice.
If our children determine to seek their fortune
screw the seas, it is surely better that they
should continue to live under the old flag than
that they should have to lose their nationality
nnder some other form of Government. Australia
is too far away to attract a large number who
want to emigrate, but Canada in these days of
swift steaming is comparatively near; and those
who go to the latter country can always indulge
the hope that, if they find prosperity, they will
be able to return to their old home if only for a
holiday trip.
Old customs die harder in the City of London
than in almost any other part of the country.
At various times of the year certain of these are
reported in the newspapers, and not the least
eurious are some which annually take place at
Easter. At St. Bartholomew's, West Smith-
field, known to antiquaries as Rahere's Priory
Church, for instance, twenty-one of the oldest
widows of the parish assembled on the morning
of Good Friday, and picked up a new sixpence
from an old tomb in the churchyard, a quaint
observance which has had an existence of over
four hundred years. On the same morning
another old custom was being followed at All
Hallows, Lombard-street, this having been
established by the will of Peter Symonds, who
in 1635 directed that "60 of ye youngest boys of
Christ's Hospital should attend Divine service
on Good Friday morning at All Hallows Church,
each to receive a new penny and a bag of
raisins." A later dweller in the parish evidently
thought that others besides the Bluecoat boys
deserved remembrance at the Easter season, for,
in a will of 1692, William Potts left provision
"that ye minister who preaches ye sermon
before the boys on Goode Friday morning shall
receive 205.; ye clerke, 45.; and ye sexton,
Bs. 6d." It is not strange to find it recorded
that considerable interest was manifested in the
observance of both these ancient customs, for in
most Englishmen there is a latent love of that
which is old, which displays itself in various
forms even among those who like progress the
most.
On the day before these customs were being
carried out in the City the West-end of London
witnessed some other Easter observances which
have been handed down to us from ancient time.
It is on Maundy Thursday that a certain portion
if the Royal Bounty is always distributed. A
list of poor persons, corresponding in number to
the years attained by the Sovereign, is provided
for the Lord High Almoner, and to these at one
ot the Chapels Royal is given the "Maundy
money," specially struck at the Mint for the
occasion. Silver penny and three-halfpenny
pieces are unknown to the general public, but a
certain number of these are minted every year
for this Easter distribution, the value of which
to those receiving it is greatly augmented by
the fact that no sooner do they leave the
chapel with the purses containing these minute
specimens of silver money than the specimens
themselves are eagerly bought by lovers of
the curious at a price far beyond the nominal
value. On the same day that this distribution
of the Royal Bounty was being made in London
an Laster ceremony of even greater antiquity
was being observed in Vienna, where the Aus-
trian Emperor washed the feet of a dozen poor
men before giving them the customary alms.
Tho Empress usually at the same time washes the
feet of a dozen poor women, but this year that
portion of the ceremony had to be omitted
because of the absence of her Majesty from the
capital. The observance of the custom is calcu-
lated to evoke criticism in England, but in such
matters the safe rule is that of giving credit in
all things for the best intentions, and not to
strive to judge of that which is foreign exclu-
sively by the standard of that which is English.
The Royal proclamation prohibiting the
portation of foreign copper coin has caused a

greater amount of excitement, especially in the
metropolis, than could have been imagined when
it was issued—so great an amount, in fact, that
the problem of how to dispose of foreign half-
pence became almost one of the "burning ques-
tions" of the day. On railways, in tramcars, and
by the conductors of omnibuses, any,but English
coppers were refused with unanimity, and quite a
scare set in among the poorer persons who happened
to have foreign pence in their possession. Under
these circumstances the Chancellor of the
Exchequer was appealed to by a gentleman
interested in the matter, who pointed out that
much misapprehension existed as to the meaning
of the proclamation, it having been construed as
directed against the circulation as well as the
importation of foreign coin. Mr. Goschen
immediately replied that though, of course,
French, Italian and Belgian coppers were not
and never had been "legal tender "in England,
they had passed from hand to hand 'with some
freedom, and there was no reason why they
should not continue to do so, the proclamation
being aimed at the systematic importation of
such coins, and not at the merely casual bring-
ing into the country of a few. Now that the
highest authority on the subject has so clearly
explained the scope of the proclamation, it may
be hoped that lessinconvenience will be caused by
it than appeared probable during the first ten
days after the issue. A. F. R.