There was little to catch the eye about his batting, but he was the most pleasing of defensive batsmen, of men whose art rises to the heights under the challenge of adversity. ... The fireworks, the rockets, and the frenzies of big hitting are admirable in their way, but cricket would not be the enchanting game it is were it not for the quiet beauty of the game's less riotous colours; Clare wrote poetry as well as Shelley, and Makepeace was of his school.