s again the end of the summer
half-year at Rugby; in fact, the School has broken up. The fifth-form
examinations were over last week, and upon them have followed the
speeches, and the sixth-form examinations for exhibitions; and they too
are over now. The boys have gone to all the winds of heaven, except the
town boys and the eleven, and the few enthusiasts besides who have asked
leave to stay in their houses to see the result of the cricket matches.
For this year the Wellesburn return match and the Marylebone match are
played at Rugby, to the great delight of the town and neighbourhood, and
the sorrow of those aspiring young cricketers who have been reckoning
for the last three months on showing off at Lord's ground.

The Doctor started for the Lakes yesterday morning, after an interview
with the captain of the eleven, in the presence of Thomas, at which he
arranged in what school the cricket dinners were to be, and all other
matters necessary for the satisfactory carrying out of the festivities,
and warned them as to keeping all spirituous liquors out of the close,
and having the gates closed by nine o'clock.

The Wellesburn match was played out with great success yesterday, the
School winning by three wickets; and to-day the great event of the
cricketing year, the Marylebone match, is being played. What a match it
has been! The London eleven came down by an afternoon train yesterday,
in time to see the end of the Wellesburn match; and as soon as it was
over, their leading men and umpire inspected the ground, criticising it
rather unmercifully. The captain of the School eleven, and one or
two others, who had played the Lord's match before, and knew old Mr.
Aislabie and several of the Lord's men, accompanied them; while the rest
of the eleven looked on from under the Three Trees with admiring eyes,
and asked one another the names of the illustrious strangers, and
recounted how many runs each of them had made in the late matches in
Bell's Life. They looked such hard-bitten, wiry, whiskered fellows that
their young adversaries felt rather desponding as to the result of the
morrow's match. The ground was at last chosen, and two men set to work
upon it to water and roll; and then, there being yet some half-hour of
daylight, some one had suggested a dance on the turf. The close was
half full of citizens and their families, and the idea was hailed
with enthusiasm. The cornopean player was still on the ground. In five
minute