Hail, cricket| Glorious, manly,
British Game!
First of all Sports!
be first alike in Fame.
The poem by James Love is too long to quote in full; above are its opening two lines. It describes a match in 1744 between Kent and England. It is written in rhyming couplets. According to H.S. Altham, it "should be in every cricket lover's library" and "his description of the game goes with a rare swing". The poem is the first substantial piece of literature about cricket.