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Bradley was hardly in his best form and only notched 11; Reid's graceful manoeuvres with his right hand obtained him the same number.

The matches for the Racquet Championship have, as yet, been smooth and uneventful enough. None of the best players as yet have drawn each other, and the moderate and bad have generally been unequally matched: the twenty-six who entered were arranged in the following couples:

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The couples of the second round were also mostly uninteresting, viz. :

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The play for the Silver Cup can hardly be begun yet, since the Champion, who is as yet undetermined, has to give points.

There were only sixteen entries for the Under Sixteen Racquets-fewer than there ought to be- considering the comparative facility with which a small boy can get a Racquet Court now-adays. The enticements of Fives, and the unaccountable passion which possesses boys of a tender age for rolling on gymnasium mattresses perhaps account for it, but do not excuse it.

The Coming Cricket Season.

From February to the middle of March is certainly the slowest part of our half year. The reason for this is obvious: Football, to which the season is well suited, is utterly ignored; for when an attempt was made to introduce Football after the Christmas holidays, it proved a total failure The result is, that the only amusements left us are Racquets, Fives, and Paper Chases. So it is not altogether surprising that most, if not all of us, look forward to the coming Cricket Season with pleasure.

Since the last Marlborough Match, we have lost six out of our Eleven, viz., Abbott, Baker, Barrow, Cuppage, Renny-Tailyour, and Hamilton. Two of these vacancies have been filled up by Wise and Reid, thus still leaving four places to be competed for by the rising talent.

Although great trouble was taken to bring about a match with Rugby, we are sorry to say that the attempt was unsuccessful. It is just probable that the Marlborough match this year will be played in London: we have been kindly offered the oval cricket ground, for Tuesday and Wednesday, the 23rd and 24th of June, by Mr. Burrup, the Surrey secretary, for the above event. On the 25th and 26th it is purposed to play the Civil Service, at Battersea, and, if possible, a third match will take place with the Free Foresters. This finishes our list of London matches. With regard to our home ones, we can, unfortunately, give but little information, further than to say that the ' Fly by Nights' pay us their second visit on the 1st and second of June. Mr. Cunningham has again offered to bring us a team from Liverpool, and Mr. C. V. Eccles one from the London districts: the dates for these matches have not yet been fixed.

Our Contemporaries.

The two numbers which we have received of the Eton College Chronicle for February, are much occupied by discussions on 'Reform at Eton,' suggested by the probably impending legislation on this subject. The Chronicle complains much of the large amount of Latin and Greek that is learnt by heart, or rather supposed

to be learnt, by the Upper Boys at Eton, (Homer, 90 lines; Horace, 55; Virgil, 55; and so on)' that 'school-times are taken up with one monotonous round of saying-lesson and construing, construing and saying-lesson, all the week through. Why not substitute Composition, or a little Ancient History, on two or three out of the five mornings of the week? And why should saying-lesson be confined, in almost every case, to what has been construed a day or two before?' On this point a correspondent thinks 'most Etonians' (and we should think most people elsewhere) 'will agree with the Chronicle,'

But as to the system of Chapels, and the custom of having a service at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, there appear to be various opinions. The Chronicle writer thinks that bringing boys together on a fine summer afternoon, with their heads full of all sorts of subjects, thinking how their house-match will go, or who will win the race in the evening, &c.,' will not answer the purpose for which Chapels were intended, but produces 'the general air of unreality and pretence, pervades Chapel nearly as much on Sundays as on week-days;' that the afternoon service, in short, only answers the purpose of a roll-call. Some correspondents, however, are of opinion that to talk of an air of 'unreality and pretence,' is to slander the school; and likewise that the afternoon service affords 'a pleasant break in the fatigue of the day, in which, otherwise, there would be seven uninterrupted hours for recreation.' Chapel, it seems, is the best place for cooling oneself in the intervals of a cricket match. The same correspondent complains much of the hardship of dragging 'ordinary mortals as far as the 6th book of Euclid,' and even 'into the mysteries of Algebra,' because 'a few boys in a division think themselves destined to be Senior Wranglers.' Surely the Divine póvos must soon cut down those who thus wantonly seek to overstep the bounds of mortal knowledge.

Also, with regard to Examinations, it is objected by the Chronicle that after passing 'Upper Division Trials,' a boy need not go in again for a single Examination against his will; and that consequently the majority rest on their oars, and during the last year or two at Eton do not improve a bit. To which it is replied by 'Vindex,' that this is because so many in the Upper Division 'have to read for various Examinations, such as Matriculation, the Examinations for the Army, &c. Besides, there are the Oppidan Exhibitions, and the Newcastle, which afford quite enough to do.' We should have thought that 'Matriculation' did not require any very different line of study from that usually pursued in the Upper Division at Eton; unless, indeed, for Cambridge, they may wish to

go a little beyond even 'the 6th book of Euclid, and the mysteries of Algebra.'

With regard to games at Eton, there appears to be much activity. The new Racquet Courts are greatly appreciated; a game with 'two of the best players at Harrow,' Messrs. Murray and Walker, came off February 13, resulting in a victory for Eton, in the persons of Messrs. Ottaway and Trilton. Athletic Sports' have become an annual institution-the Fives Walls accomodate 40 players, and the 'Beagles' occupy 70. There is a great desire to reinstate Hockey, in the fields known by the title of the Hockey Fields; and it is suggested the new game, La Crosse, capable of being a firstrate game, should be introduced. Rules for Hockey, and Rules for Fives and Racquet Courts, and discussions thereon, occupy a good deal of space in the Chronicle.

The Concert at Marlborough which took place on December 18, appears, from the Marlburian, to have been the most decided success in every way, but the writter of the paper comments on the deficiency in number of those who can read music. Does not our choir suffer in like manner? There are some very interesting remarks on Greene, Marlowe, and Shakespeare, which bring out the connection between the great poet and the two lesser, but senior luminaries. We would add our protest against the comparative neglect into which Marlowe especially has now fallen; when a man like Robert Buchanan is read with fervent admiration, Christopher Marlowe certainly deserves a more universal attention. 'Jottings in Abyssinia' is interesting, as everything about Abyssinia appears to be just now. There is an Epigram which cannot be epitomized, and so we give it :-Epigram by one whose initials are C.J.C. Nomine nunc CIC sum, forsitan et CICero.

An Occasional Note says 'The Eleven is fearfully thinned, money is gone, and Hilliard is gone (the latter blow was the more felt because unexpected), and only four are left; to wit-R. Leach, (capt.), J. P. Mac'Gregor, C. S. Gordon, and E. S. Garnier.

In the meeting of the Natural History Society there were 100 present.

Debating Society, February 24th.-M. H. Gould moved that It is the duty of Government to provide a National System of Education, including compulsory attendance. For the motion, 17; against, 16; majority, I.

Really M. H. Gould rivals our friend Bean. Would that one of the Marlborough Eleven had graced the lists of 'Speakers in the Affirmative,' after the noble example of E. F. S. Tylecote of blessed memory.

The Meteor of February 13, is not very spirit-stirring. The only School event which it has to notice, is a Concert given at the end of last half, which seems to have been a great success. The choir aspired to give a series of choruses from Handel's 'Israel in Egypt,' and were found equal to the task. Such being the case, we need say no more.

During this the term of annual peace, Rugby Reformers intend to be active. Three objects occupy their attention at present(1) To reform the Rifle. Corps by admitting boys under 17, and enforcing drill. (2) To reform the system by which the Fives Courts are at present taken, under which, one house from being nearer than any other can monopolize the courts. This reform is to be effected by arranging all claimants to courts in a line, and and letting them race for the courts, at 1.30, a premium on fast running and light dinners. (3) To make better Athletic arrangements, by revising the order of the races, by allowing the same boy to win the same race two successive years, reforms which are most eminently rational. Letters and articles on these points, in the same style though with different signatures, fill three-fourths of the Meteor.

The Debating Society decided many curious and important points last session-'That the pleasures of day are preferable to night;' 'That a cat tax would be beneficial;' 'That the cheap Press and Works of Fiction are beneficial to society.'

Concerning the proposals made by Cheltenham for a Cricket Match, the Meteor says, 'Such a tribute of homage paid to our fame, is inexpressibly gratifying. We can almost foresee the day when the picture, so graphically described by Longfellow in Hiawatha, shall be symbolically realized, when the various cricketing nations of England shall assemble at the feet of the R.S.C.C.-the great Manitou of Cricket; shall wash their war paint in the dear flowing Avon, and shall smoke the pipe or bowl, the ball of peace, in harmonious concert. For the present, we can only hope that the virgin goddess of Rugby Cricket will not be intoxicated by the sweet fumes of adulatory incense which are circling round her.'

O. H.

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