The Book of Sports, page 29 by William Martin
<< Return to Title Details & Download30
nd,--narrowly watching with his eyes its deviations. Now the same watchfulness must be displayed by the gymnastic balancer: he first uses the balancing pole,--he then mounts the balancing bar without it. On mounting the bar, the body should be held erect, and the hands must be extended. He must then learn to walk firmly and steadily along the bar, so as to be able to turn round, and then he should practise going backwards. Two balancers should then endeavour to pass each other on the bar; afterwards, to carry each other, and bodies of various weights, in various positions.
Walking on stilts is connected with balancing. A person can walk with greater security upon high than on low stilts. In some parts of France, the peasantry, in looking after their sheep, walk generally on stilts, and it only requires practise to make this as easy as common walking. Some few years ago, several of these stilt-walkers were to be seen in London, and they could run, jump, stoop, and walk with ease and security, their legs seeming quite as natural to them as those of the Stork.
PART V.
CRICKET.
[Illustration]
Cricket is the king of games. Every boy in England should learn it. The young prince of Wales is learning it, and will some day be the prince of cricket-players, as I trust he will some day, a long while hence, however, let us hope, be king of merry England. I shall, therefore, be very particular concerning this noble game. It is played by a bat and ball, and consists of double and single wicket. The wicket was formerly two straight thin batons, called stumps, twenty-two inches high, which were fixed in the ground perpendicularly, six inches apart, and over the top of both was laid a small round piece of wood, called the bail, but so placed as to fall off readily if the stumps were touched by the ball. Of late years the wicket consists of three stumps and two bails; the middle stump is added to prevent the ball from passing through the wi