This is the heart of it:-- The wickets are pitch'd now, and measur'd the ground, Then they form a large ring, and stand gazing around, Since AJAX fought HECTOR, in sight of all TROY, No contest was seen with such fear and such joy.
Ye bowlers, take heed, to my precepts attend, On you the whole fate of the game must depend; Spare your vigour at first, nor exert all your strength, But measure each step, and be sure pitch a length.
Ye fieldsmen, look sharp, lest your pains ye beguile; Move close, like an army, in rank and in file, When the ball is return'd, back it sure, for I trow Whole states have been ruin'd by one overthrow.
Ye strikers, observe when the foe shall draw nigh, Mark the bowler advancing with vigilant eye: Your skill all depends upon distance and sight, Stand firm to your scratch, let your bat be upright.
Further west is Loxwood, on the edge of a little-known tract of country, untroubled by railways, the most unfamiliar village in which is perhaps Plaistow.

Plaistow is on the road to nowhere and has not its equal for quietude in England.

It is a dependency of Kirdford, whence comes the Petworth marble which we see in many Sussex churches.

Shillinglee Park, the seat of the Earl of Winterton, is hard by.
From these remote parts one may return to Horsham by way of Warnham, on whose pond Shelley as a boy used to sail his little boat, and where perhaps he gained that love of navigation which never left him and brought about his death.

Warnham, always a cricketing village, until lately supplied the Sussex eleven with dashing Lucases; but it does so no more.
[Sidenote: STANE STREET] Before passing to the east of Horsham, something ought to be said of one at least of the villages of the south-west, namely, Billingshurst, on Stane Street, once an important station between Regnum and Londinum, or Chichester and London, as we should now say.