Introduction
Essayist Leigh Hunt was a cricket-lover, and panegyrics on the game and its health-giving properties pepper his writing. He was also of the opinion that those whose got out to play the game gained an appreciation for the countryside and a perspective on the world denied to many others.
IT is a melancholy thing to say for England, with her beautiful country, that we have not even a word to express an entertainment amidst scenery out of doors, but must recur for one to the French, — Fête Champêtre;* that is to say, a festival in the fields, or the country, — a rural entertainment. “Rural Entertainment” would sound affected in English! — But we shall grow wiser as real knowledge of the world extends, and when it is no longer confined to the signification of above a nine-hundredth million part of it.
“The world!” The man of fashion means St James’s by it; the mere man of trade means the Exchange, and a good, prudent mistrust. But cricketers, and men of sense and imagination, who use all the eyes and faculties God has given them, mean His beautiful planet, gorgeous with sunset, lovely with green fields, magnificent with mountains — a great rolling energy, full of health, love, and hope, and fortitude, and endeavour. Compare this world with the others — no better than a billiard ball or a musty plum.
In 1788, Robert Burns published some verses on the ‘Fête Champêtre’ in a similar vein, in which he imagined that Love and Beauty vowed (and sealed it with a kiss) to deny entry to the North Wind, and in particular to Politics. Burns’s song was set to the rollicking Jacobite tune ‘Killiecrankie’ (YouTube), which might just be letting Politics in by a side-gate.
Archive
Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Compare. Melancholy. Nine.
2 Full. Prudent. Trade.
3 Affect. Amid. Man.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Subject and Object Find in Think and Speak
Use each word below in two sentences, first as the subject of a verb, and then as the object of a verb. It doesn’t have to be the same verb: some verbs can’t be paired with an object (e.g. arrive, happen), so watch out for these.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1. Knowledge. 2. Great. 3. Use. 4. Entertainment. 5. Roll. 6. Health. 7. Love. 8. Sense. 9. Ball.
Variations: 1.use your noun in the plural (e.g. cat → cats), if possible. 2.give one of your sentences a future aspect (e.g. will, going to). 3.write sentences using negatives such as not, neither, nobody and never.
Opposites Find in Think and Speak
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations: 1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms). 2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence. 3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding un-.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
tbs (5+1)
taboos. tabs. tubas. tubes. tubs.
tibias.
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