As we find ourselves in the middle of the cricket season, it seems an appropriate time to look back at the early history of one of England’s most enduring sports and at a remarkable cricket image recently rediscovered in the collections of Lincoln College Archive.

Today’s focus is an engraving titled The Game at Cricket as play'd in the Artillary Ground London, published in The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure. The engraving was based on an original painting by Francis Hayman, a founding member of the Royal Academy, created around 1743.
What makes this particular example especially noteworthy, however, is not simply its depiction of an early cricket match, but its very recent discovery. In June 2026, the engraving was found tucked within the pages of the Lincoln College Battels Book for 1730, alongside two other engravings from The Universal Magazine. It is presumed to have been transferred from the Bursary as part of a wider accession of Bursarial records, but precisely what it was doing there and why it was preserved in this particular volume remains something of a mystery.

The engraving derives from Hayman’s original painting, which was commissioned for the supper boxes at Vauxhall Gardens in London. The painting formed part of a series of twelve sporting scenes to decorate the ornate wooden supper boxes throughout the Gardens.
The scene is unmistakably a game of cricket, although the sport depicted looks rather different to a modern spectator.

Cricket is thought to have originated in the south-east of England, particularly in the regions of the North Downs, the South Downs and the Weald, possibly as early as the 13th century. Early forms of the game may have involved local boys bowling a shaped stone at a tree stump or at the hurdle gate of a sheep pen.

The gate consisted of two upright posts topped by a crossbar, or "bail", which could be dislodged when struck. This simple arrangement is widely believed to have provided the inspiration for the modern wicket.

The earliest definitive reference to cricket, recorded as creckett, dates to 17 January 1597 in the Old Style calendar, equivalent to 27 January 1598 in the modern calendar. Evidence presented in a 1598 legal case records the game being played on common land in Guildford, Surrey, around 1550. The coroner, John Derrick, a former pupil of the Free School of Guildford, recalled that he and his fellow schoolboys had played “creckett” there.

The equipment was also quite different. The ball was bowled underarm, often along the ground, towards a wicket of two stumps and a single bail. The batsman used a curved bat resembling a long hockey stick, suited to striking a ball travelling along the ground. The modern straight bat was later developed as bowling techniques evolved.

Hayman’s 1743 scene gives us an early glimpse of a sport that is still very familiar today. It captures cricket at an interesting point in its development, showing us how the game looked and was played in the 18th century. Rediscovered in 2026, the engraving offers us a chance to revisit this small but fascinating piece of cricketing history.