At the Oval, England won the toss and chose to bat. WG Grace and William Scotton put on 170 for the first wicket, when Scotton was dismissed for only 34 after 225 minutes. Grace then went on to retake the record for the highest English Test score, finishing on 170 when he was second man out, bringing in Walter Read. Read went on to score 94 in 210 minutes. Scotton's slow scoring, particularly when compared with Grace and Read prompted London magazine "Punch" to print the following parody on Alfred, Lord Tennyson: