I. Wicket-keeper 1884. Kemp First, then, of the wicketkeepers, Lewis probably the better of the two. If the extras in '95 ran into an unusually high figure, he could not be held responsible for the eccentricities of a bowler who persisted in bowling wides, full pitches, and no balls. Kemp, of course, was quite a dangerous batsman in a 'Varsity match; but in the case of the wicket-keeper, good batting or bad batting must rank as separable accidents. Secondly, the bowlers. Up to the day of the match there was very little to choose between the two fast bowlers: then, as is sometimes the habit of the tribe, Whitby chanced to have two real days "on," and Arkwright two real days "off." Of the other pairs, Cunliffe and Raikes were probably a stronger combination than Bastard and Nicholls. In the third place, we do not seem able to arrive at any appreciable difference between the merits of the four all-round players. In a 'Varsity match, that is: I am dealing with the 'Varsity match only. Take the names, shake them up in a bag, and give me the first two that come out. We shall be quite contented; equally contented also to accept the residue. Poor Teddy Buckland the least efficient of the quartette? Was he so, really? The '86 match might well have been left drawn Lewis 1895. Arkwright, Cunliffe, Raikes had he by any chance been left Finally, our five batsmen. O'Brien and Key undoubtedly a more formidable pair in their year than Foster and Warner in theirs. And there is the curious part of it. O'Brien and Key, Freshmen both, may be said to have matriculated at Oxford as seasoned cricketers ; their younger rivals in their third year of residence were only showing promise-pretty good promise in one case-of their present excellence. If we place Brain and Hildyard against Mordaunt and Phillips, the advantage would appear to rest with the junior pair, even in the face of the fact that Brain on his best day was capable of greater things than any one of the other trio. HineHaycock and Smith must go on the same line, as being absolutely inseparable. How singular the resemblance! Both won their colours in their third year, and after playing two seasons practically disappeared from the arena of first-class cricket. Both thoroughly sound players, both at their best in a crisis, both endowed to a remarkable degree with the heaven - born gift of seeming to be nervous without really being so. That one side won their match and the other lost theirs does not alter the fact that both were unusually good. As the '95 match was played, Oxford neither deserved to win nor at any period of the game looked like winning. Perhaps they were stale, perhaps they were unlucky, both in the matter of losing the toss and finding two fast but not usually over-reliable bowlers at their very best. But their season's record was distinctly good, and no county need have "watered" its side before attacking them. Other points of interest in the two matches must be briefly disposed of. The first, then, was for the most part a Freshman's Eleven, the other almost entirely made up of seniors; yet the younger side seemed to have the older heads on their shoulders. Nemesis yet once again reminded us of the interest she has always taken in University cricket by providing us with the spectacle of the three most dangerous batsmen in their respective years contributing between them, in five completed innings, six runs out of an aggregate not far short of seven hundred. On the shoulders of three men who played on the same side fourteen years ago lately fell the responsibility of opening the batting for M.C.C. team especially selected to oppose the Australians; three again were chosen to select our Elevens for the Test Matches. Since the above was written the earlier results of the present season have come to hand, and the promise of better things to come has been amply redeemed in the triumph of Oxford over Kent and of Cambridge over Surrey. These are early days to prophesy; but as in both matches the Counties put what may be called really representative sides into the field, there is fair ground for hoping that the University match of 1910 will be better worth watching than has been the case of late years, and that a fair proportion of undergraduate cricketers may be found figuring against the Players at Lords. THE LIGHTER SIDE OF MY OFFICIAL LIFE. BY SIR ROBERT ANDERSON, K.C.B. IX. SOME SCOTLAND YARD STORIES. FRIVOLOUS people tell me that although what I have been writing may be interesting enough, it is more "Scotland Yard stories" they want. Well, here are a few "Scotland Yard stories." A street quarrel between two young men one night in February 1896 attracted the attention of the police constable on the beat; and when they separated, one of them, whose action excited his suspicions, was brought to the station. There the delinquent was found to be a young woman in man's dress; and when she appeared before a magistrate next morning, her story, which he heard in his private room, was so interesting and pathetic that, in discharging her, he directed that her case should be specially reported to me. It transpired, moreover, that she had received sympathy and pecuniary help from people in a very exalted position in London. Accord ingly I sent for her. When she came to my office she was dressed neatly and with taste, in female garb of course. She was attractive and ladylike, and rather pretty; her voice was pleasing and her smile was charming. She sat facing me at the opposite side of my table for nearly an hour, talking over her wonderful life story. By temperament and training I am a hopeless sceptic, but neither by word nor gesture did I betray my doubts about her narrative. Again and again I brought her round to various points in her story, and quietly cross-questioned her upon them. But her statements never varied; she never prevaricated, and a guileless child could not have answered me more promptly and simply. The circumstances of her early life, she said, were long a mystery to her. Though the woman she supposed to be her mother was only a housekeeper, she was sent to a good school, and had occasional trips to the Continent. It was not till recent years that she discovered her real parentage. Her mother was a lady, and her father was the Lord Justice A. L. Smith. People of high degree who knew her story had been kind to her, and she had received valuable presents from them, notably some old furniture and a few valuable paintings. Among the people she named, who were personally known to me, she had much to say about Lord and Lady Rosebery; and she was very pathetic about the mingled kindness and neglect with which her father, Young women are the the Lord Justice, had treated strangest of creatures, and her. their actual doings are sometimes more improbable than anything in the pages of fiction. It is not a capital felony for a woman to wear a man's clothes, but under the Metropolitan Police Acts disorderly proceedings of this kind are risky. And this made Sir Somebody Something very uneasy when his daughter took to this habit. So he came to see me privately, and put me in possession of the facts. It was then only an sional freak with the girl, but presently it became habitual; and in changing her dress she also changed her name and became "William." I omit some chapters of the story, for I will not risk disclosing the identity of the family concerned; but it ended in her going to America with another young woman-Matilda I will call her. I advised both families that if they wished their daughters to return to them they should avoid all agonycolumn appeals, and treat the matter in the most prosaic way. And the result justified my forecast. Two of Matilda's letters were shown to me. The first announced that Willie had proposed for her, and they were going to be married at once. The next, written a few weeks later, complained that Willie had treated her very badly. He had deserted her and gone away, and she begged for money to enable her to come home! And in due course a similar appeal came from Willie. These are The only item in her narrative which was capable of immediate verification I found to be true, namely, her possession of the old furniture and the paintings. But still I was sceptical. I knew that my friend, Mr J. L. Wharton, then M.P. for Durham, was on terms of brotherly intimacy with "A. L." (as he always called him); so to him I applied. He scouted the story; and next day they called on me together. "I hear you have found a new daughter for me," was the Lord Justice's cheery greeting; "I hope she's pretty." I told him she was both pretty and charming. That, he declared, was clear evidence that she was his child; and yet there was not a word of truth in her statements. I then pursued my inquiries, and I found that her story was fiction from first to last. Her father kept a brica-brac shop, and, as she lived near by, he used her lodgings as a temporary receptacle for some of his wares, including the valuable pictures. Her schooling was such as Mr W. E. Forster's Education Act had provided, and her trips abroad were flights of fancy. Scores of times I have seen a truthful witness break down under the sort of cross-examination which this girl bore without wincing, and without making a single slip. I have had experience of similar cases, but this was incomparably the most interesting and extraordinary I have ever known. plain facts: could any one venture to tell such a story in a sixpenny novel? The day I was called to the Bar, one of the Masters of the High Court, the father of the late Lord Justice Fitzgibbon -he and I were friends from childhood-gave me some kindly and useful counsel. One piece of advice I never forgot; it was to keep my eyes and ears open, and I should often find that the chance incidents and information of daily life would prove useful in practice at the Bar. The importance of this in Police work could scarcely be exaggerated. I will illustrate what I mean. After a hurried dinner one evening, I went off to address a meeting of the Y.M.C.A. During the singing of a hymn the chairman intimated to me that the next item on the programme was my address. But at that moment one of my inspectors entered the hall, and I saw at a glance that it was not for ghostly counsel he had come. I told the chairman that I must go out for a few minutes, and, followed by my inspector, I left the hall. He had omitted to submit a report in a criminal case that morning, and his object in coming to me was to escape being brought before me next morning as a defaulter. The matter itself was insignificant-it was only a petty case of fraud. A schoolboy had called on а clergyman living near London, and had obtained a sovereign from him on the pretence that he had lost his purse, and wanted money to enable him to reach the house of a relative in Hampshire. But the clergyman ascertained that the lad, instead of going south, had booked north by the L. & N.W. Railway. I granted the officer the relief he sought, and returned to the hall to give my lecture. But this report gave me the first clue I had obtained to the solution of a London murder case. The fraud was committed the morning after the murder, and I had received a letter from a girl friend in the town to which the lad had booked, in which she mentioned incidentally that he had been to see them, and that he seemed to have "gone dotty," as his head was full of some murder he had committed in London. After my lecture I gave the order for his arrest; and the case happily ended in acquittal on the ground of insanity. an There was no amusement to be got out of that case. It was sad and tragic. But Scotland Yard is looked upon as a sort of universal inquiry office, and the strangest appeals are made to the Police. About the time of the murder last mentioned, I had a visit from a woman who wanted me to prevent her daughter from marrying an Indian law student who had been living in her house as a lodger. My attendant brought me word that she would see no one but the chief; and she seemed so very respectable, and so mysterious withal, that he thought her business must be important. When I let her in, and heard her story, the very impudence |