Miss Mitford, in her charming book, Our Village, describes the rivalry which existed between the village elevens at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and gives a sketch of a match between two Berkshire village teams, which brought about some very happy results of a romantic nature.  She tells us, too, of the comments of the rustics on the “new-fashioned” style of bowling which one of the team had introduced from London, which did not at all commend itself to them, but effectually took their wickets.  When that celebrated company of cricketers, dressed in frock-coats and tall hats, whose portraits adorn many a pavilion, competed for the honour of All England, they were quite ignorant of “round-arm” bowling, which is, of course, an invention of modern times.  Only “lobs,” or “under-hands,” were the order of the day.  It has been stated that we are indebted to the ladies for the important discovery of the modern style of delivering the ball.  The story may be legendary, but I have read somewhere that the elder Lillywhite used to practise cricket all through the winter, and that his daughters used to bowl to him.  During the bitter cold of a winter’s day they wore their shawls, and found it more convenient to bowl with extended arms than in the old method.  Their balls so delivered used to puzzle their father, and often take his wicket; so he began to imitate them, and introduced his new method into matches, and thus the age of round-arm bowling was inaugurated.  I cannot vouch for the truth of the story, and only tell it as it was told to me.[12] At any rate Lillywhite was the father of modern bowling, which would have startled and considerably puzzled the veteran cricketers in the early part of the present century.

The proper parent of cricket seems to have been club-ball, which is a very old game, and of which there is a picture in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, dated 1344 A.D.  It represents a female throwing a ball to a man who is in the act of raising his bat to strike it.  Behind the woman, at a little distance, appear several other figures of men and women waiting attentively to catch or stop the ball when hit by the batsman.  There is a still more ancient picture of two club-ball players, representing the batsman holding the ball also and preparing to hit it, while the other player holds his hands in readiness to catch the ball.  He has the appearance of a very careful fielder.  Here we have the rudimentary idea of cricket; but how they scored their game, what rules they had, we cannot determine.  Stool-ball claims also to be an ancestor of cricket, and consists in one player defending a stool with his hand from being hit by a ball bowled by another player.  Here is a simple form of the modern game, the stool being used as a wicket, and the hand for a bat.