Friends of the Dickens Forum,

    Berkeley's Robert Tracy adds an interesting note to what we have been reading about
Dickens's interest in and knowledge of cricket.   We do not have a copy of Charley's
"Reminiscences,"  but in Robert Gottlieb's *Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters
 of Charles Dickens* (2012) Charley's daughter Mary Angela tells that "He [her father]
was a lover of cricket and our field [at Gad' Hill] was always at the service of the village
club."  A love of cricket has been passed on.  Here is Professor Tracy:        (pjm)
[log in to unmask]" type="cite"> 

Dear colleagues: I remember but cannot put my hands on my xerox of
"Reminiscences of My Father" by Charles Dickens, Jr., which appeared in
Windsor Magazine Supplement in December 1934. Charles Junior comments on
his father's eagerness to play the Squire of Gad's Hill by sponsoring the
local cricket team and allowing it to play on his property, and particular
delight in "marking" or keeping score. But Charles Jr. adds that his father
did not really understand the game, made mistakes in scoring, and that
someone else had to straighten things out. His daughter Mamie confirms his
love of scoring in "My Father as I Recall Him" (1896) ("cricket he enjoyed
intensely as a spectator, always keeping one of the scores during the
matches at Gad's Hill").See also Alan S.Watts in DICKENS AT GAD'S HILL
(!989).

Dickens's urban childhood and poverty probably prevented him from playing
cricket as a boy, and so learning how to score properly.

Someone with a better memory than me, or a better filing system, can
perhaps provide the "cricket" passage from Charles Junior's reminiscences.

Rbert Tracy