Cricket in fiction was particularly true in the era before the Second World War, for example, during the Edwardian era, and in the 1920s and 1930s. An early chapter of Dickens's famous first novel "The Pickwick Papers", serialised as early as 1836, features a brief description of a cricket match between the All-Muggleton team and the Dingley Dell Cricket Club. Mr Pickwick watches as Mr Jingle provides a running commentary on the game (""Capital game—smart sport—fine exercise—very"" is a typical Jingle comment.) Cricket also plays a prominent part in "Tom Brown's Schooldays" (1857), Thomas Hughes' classic novel of life at Rugby. A century
Manor Farm, West Challow Ascot. On his death in 1828 the manor passed to his relative Daniel Ferard, who died in 1837, leaving it to his eldest son Charles Cotton Ferard. Charles owned the manor for about 50 years, during which time he let it to various tenants. One group who rented the house for many years was the Hunt family. Uriah Hunt (1817–1870) took a lease on Manor Farm about 1860. He had previously been on a smaller farm (about 130 acres) in West Challow with his wife Harriet and six children, but by 1861 he had moved to the Manor House and