nothing but remain still, and anticipate the reproof that was
preparing. What was my agreeable surprise to see the old gentleman
standing at the stile, with his hands in his pockets, surveying the
whole scene with evident satisfaction! And how dull I must have
been, not to have known till my friend the grandfather (who, by-
the-bye, said he had been a wonderful cricketer in his time) told
me, that it was the clergyman himself who had established the whole
thing: that it was his field they played in; and that it was he
who had purchased stumps, bats, ball, and all!

It is such scenes as this, I would see near London, on a Sunday
evening. It is such men as this, who would do more in one year to
make people properly religious, cheerful, and contented, than all
the legislation of a century could ever accomplish.

It will be said--it has been very often--that it would be matter of
perfect impossibility to make amusements and exercises succeed in
large towns, which may be very well adapted to a country
population. Here, again, we are called upon to yield to bare
assertions on matters of belief and opinion, as if they were
established and undoubted facts. That there is a wide difference
between the two cases, no one will be prepared to dispute; that the
difference is such as to prevent the application of the same
principle to both, no reasonable man, I think, will be disposed to
maintain. The great majority of the people who make holiday on
Sunday now, are industrious, orderly, and well-behaved persons. It
is not unreasonable to suppose that they would be no more inclined
to an abuse of pleasures provided for them, than they are to an
abuse of the pleasures they provide for themselves; and if any
people, for want of something better to do, resort to criminal