THE ORIGINAL OF THE PRINT PUBLISHED BY FREDERICK LILLYWHITE AND JOHN WISDEN, 10TH AUGUST, 1857. Anderson's superb rendering of the massive ox-like strength and yet gentle character of the Kent cricketer, Alfred Mynn (1807-61) has become one of the most enduring images of cricket art. Mynn was a famous eater. Down & West (p. 106) observe: "Scorning such provender as tea and bread and butter, Alfred was a firm believer in a staple diet of beef and beer ... John Corbet Anderson recalled that one evening the sitting could not begin until the subject had consumed two and a half pounds of beef and a quart of beer. This meal was repeated two hours later, while breakfast the next morning consisted of a pound and a half of steak and once again, the 'inevitable' quart ...."
Accredited Champion of England, with a velocity and accuracy of bowling so remarkable that he was never defeated in single wicket matches, Mynn was a hop picker by trade, described in posthumous verse by Prowse as having "his broad hand ever open, his brave heart ... ever warm." Prowse's poem has this memorable ending:
"... As the changing seasons pass,
As our Champion lies a-sleeping underneath the Kentish grass --
Proudly, sadly, we will name him, to forget him were a sin --
Lightly lie the turf upon thee, kind and manly Alfred Mynn."