The English are in some ways curiously bad at looking
after them- selves_ It seems (for instance) extraordinary to me that they have never invented something for the players to do when play in a cricket match is held up by rain, as it was all over the country on Bank Holiday. The provision of a pavilion in which the teams could seek shelter was a step in the right direction. Why didn't some sensible innovator, a century or so ago, set a fashion by including in his pavilion a skittle-alley or something of the kind ? I dare say it's supposed to be good for the character for twenty-two men, thirteen of them slightly damp, to sit for an hour or two on hard seats, watch- ing rain fall on grass ; but it's certainly very dull, and there can be few cricketers who would not enjoy the season more if, every time they were driven off the field, they automatically had recourse to an
alternative game, even if it was rather a childish one.
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