his merry men ; and boxing, in Mr. Cribb's
ingenious memorial, has not wanted an histo-
rian. Perhaps, however, Mr. Anstey, the
author of that clever work called " The Plead-
er's Guide," has treated the matter in the most
enticing way. Fighting, as he finely sajs
but let him speak for himself

Now fighting's in itself an action

That gives both parties satisfaction :

A secret joy the bruiser knows

In giving and receiving blows;

A nameless pleasure only tasted

By those who've thoroughly been basted.



With what an amateur feeling is this given !
It has all the air of a person whose mind has
not been lightly made up on the matter ; it
seems the word of one whom '* long expe-
rience has rendered sage ;" and may no more
be controverted than a proverb or an oracle.

We had originally intended to have dis-
cussed the various methods used in different
countries of deciding disputes : but this, we
find, would occupy greater space than we can
devote even to the present seducing subject.
We must content ourselves with a few passing
allusions to the exploits of our neighbours and
strangers ; and we may, perhaps, even indulge
ourselves with a sneer or two where their cus-
toms happen to differ from their own. This
privilege has always been ceded to travellers
(or taken by them), and also to men of science
and historians ; and, as we claim to be enrol-
led amongst the two latter classes, we shall
assume the rights that belong to them all, and
take our measures accordingly.

Before we begin upon fighting, we may as
well say a few words about quarrelling. The
word should precede the blow at all times.
Quarrelling, then, has always been a subject
of no trifling importance to nations, as well as
to individuals. Whether indulged in by
thousands or units, it has always been a se-
rious matter, at least to the parties concerned :
blood, and noise, and foul words have gene-
rally been found its associates. Now, as
quarrelling has always been a thing of conse-
quence, it follows, of course, that the method
of putting an end to it must have partaken of
its importance. Blows and the shaking of
hands are the alpha and omega : the life and
death, as it may be said of dispute. The
hand in one case is clenched, and in the other
it is open. It is strange that such a triflig
alteration should be the distinction between
peace and war ; but so it is. Formerly there
was no other emblematic difference between
rhetoric and logic ; now those two great figures
of speech are confounded with each other.
There has not been a coalition that we know
of, but the respective qualities of each other,
become merged and lost in a something to
which it may be difficult to afford a name. In
parliament we, at times, have debate without
either persuasion or argument. In the courts
of law we have speeches without much argu-
ment, but full of flourish and pleasant per-
plexities. Conviction, to be sure, follows in
the latter case ; but it is of the luckless cul-
prit instead of in the mind of the judge. In
Ireland, we understand, an instance or two
may still be found of pure unadulterated rhe-
toric, flourishing and flighly, without anounce
of argument to weigh it down. We certainly
should like to hear a specimen. In Scotland,
a few of the higher advocates are men of wit
and letters (we hear) as well as lawyers. With
us there are some of that stamp, but not many.
To return, however, for we are getting a little
abroad, as the phrase goes, which frequently
happens after making play for some time, either



122



PIERCE EGAN'S BOOK OF SPOUTS.



with your subject or an adversary. We do
not propose to push our inquiries too far back
amongst our ancestors. It is enough to know
that the Druids wore clubs as well as beards ;
that the Picts, and Scots, and ancient Britons,
used certain warlike instruments, which almost
amounted to swords and spears ; and which,
in fact, by courtesy, passed even under those
names. The infancy of our country, how-
ever, is a thing too tender to meddle with ;
and the clubs and beards of the Druids are,
like their old groves, " holy ground," and
shall not be invaded by us. We leave the
Picts and Scots to their naked majesty to
their forests and their heaths, and descend at
once to the doublets and corslets of later times,
when the arrow and the lance made their ap-
pearance in tourney and fight. ARCHERY was
first introduced to the English in rather an un-
pleasant manner at the battle of Hastings.
William the Conqueror brought the arrow into
fashion, and kept it in high repute. His bow,
which no one else could bend, is as notorious
as himself. William gave his kingdom to his
son; unluckily the fashion followed, and an ar-
row put an end to the hunting of William Rufus.
Had a man called Dart or Arrow been then in
-existence, we suppose he would have applied to
parliament to have had his name changed at
once ; the assassination of the Duke de Berri
was, we know, too much for the loyalty of a
country gentleman of the name of LoutcL He
prayed that he might be allowed to cast off his
paternal title, and take up with the one which
his mother had abandoned. But, we believe,
there are but few instances of this uneasy de-
licacy ; nay, we hope not for otherwise it
would be a hard thing upon the Smiths, and
Thompsons, and Jacksons, of town and coun-
try. The most celebrated of our archers was
Robin Hood : he is supposed by many to have
been a nobleman ; but all allow that lie took a
purse with infinite grace. He could split ye
a wand at the distance of we know not how
many yards ; and he was successful and happy
in love. Sherwood forest, " merrie Sher-
wood," is no more in fact, but it flourishes
greenly in song, and Robin Hood and his
archers strong still live in the immortality
which, we have no doubt, they hardly earned.
As, however, the bow and arrow do not
strictly belong to the art of self-defence, which
term is understood to mean a closer method of
discussing quarrels, we leave them to enjoy
their old fame undisturbed.

A TOURNAMENT is the next thing that oc-
curs to us. A tournament was an amicable
Tepresentation, as every one knows, of a single
combat. It was the sparring of those days,
not so graceful or so manly indeed, but more
ostentatious and imposing. The spectators at
the Fives Court would soon be disgusted, were
they to witness so barbarous a proceeding.
What would they say to see two men mounted
and armed with spits, each in a sort of cup-
board of steol, gallopping towards each other,



for the sole purpose of the one pushing the
other off his horse ! The thing is really ridi-
culous. With the exception of the assemblage
of young and old Avho came to witness these
awkward exhibitions, a bull bait is beyond
them. A Spanish bull fight in truth, where
the ladies are pleased to applaud and dip their
handkerchiefs occasionally in blood ('tis but a
bull's blood), is a much more magnificent
spectacle. Sometimes these tournaments took
a serious turn, and ended in broken crowns,
or perhaps something worse : and at times
there were meetings of this sort, by no means
jocose, where the lance was not blunted, as in
sports. Then the parties went to work in a
bond fide manner, and, if their lances did not
answer their purpose, they took to their
swords without ceremony or loss of time.
When two persons were at issue with each
other, as to a matter of fact, our ancestors
deemed that the best way of getting at the
truth was to turn the parties into a ring to-
gether, and let them fight it out. It sometimes
happened that one of the combatants was six,
and the other about four or five feet high ;
under these circumstances it was easily sus-
pected on which side the truth would be found
to lie. The small man was always in fault,
and the larger acquired a privilege of lying
again. Such " ruffianing" now would not be
tolerated for a moment. We have indeed im-
proved to some purpose. Ceen. it be thought
that young Brown would be allowed to go
into a ring with Tom Cribb or Shelton ? Cer-
tainly not. It would be like thrusting the
whelp into the lion's den (as was done at the
Tower), or feed ing the Boa Constrictor with a
live goat (as is recorded by Mr. Macleod, of
the Alceste), or any other act equally au-
thentic and abominable. Oh ! pugilism is an
honorable thing. Let it not be trodden down
by the ignorant, and never be ventured upon
by the unskilful. It is not the sparrer of yes-
terday who is to be allowed a voice on a sub-
ject so important : and let not the man who has
discussed only knuckles of beef, hazard a syl-
lable disrespectful. When Tullus Aufidius
railed at mighty Rome, the conqueror of Co-
rioli stopped his presumptuous folly in a mo-
ment. For ourselves, though we nauseate it,
we would speak of smoking even with respect.
The love of smoking has in it a mystery which
we never could detect ; we treat it, therefore,
with attention. It has been too much the fa-
shion to decry the noble science of boxing.
Young gentlemen of white hands and pale
hearts cannot abide it, and the ladies vow
that it is shocking. For the former we care
not ; we leave them " to their own aversion,-'
as Don Juan says but for the fair and beau-
tiful we still have a word or two in reserve.
We cannot give them up without a blow. The
male simpleton is an absolute nought on either
side of the question, but the gentle infidel
must be ours before we cease.

FENCING. The duelling of the Vieille Cour



PIERCE EGAN'S BOOK OF SPORTS.



123



is a delicate matter. We would fain avoid it
were it possible, but our duty is imperative,
and we must say a few words on the subject.
We have really the utmost respect for the age
of Queen Anne and George II. : indeed, what
can be more imposing than the ruffles and flaps
of that stately period the forbidding sto-
machers of the women, or the overwhelming
curls of the men ! We would not move a
muscle against them. Those were not days
when things were hurried over without due
consideration : a courtship was then a serious
thing-, and a duel no joke. Each demanded
time and thought; and a lady was not plunged
into matrimony or widowhood, without proper
arrangements having been made for her com-
fort. Things then took their course, and a
gentleman was killed to the satisfaction of all
parties. Those were really respectable times,
and we are afraid that even the present must
suffer in the comparison. Our style of
fighting, however, is decidedly superior, and
with that we must rest contented.

Should any of our readers wish to know
how to handle a sword or a rapier, we com-
mend unto them M. Angelo's book upon fenc-
ing. There may be seen the English fashion,
the Spanish fashion, the Italian fashion, and
others. A gentleman may be put out of his
misery, in the most scientific way, according
to any fashion that may please him. Should
he wish to die genteelly, he may have the
small sword : if effectually, let him select the
long Spanish, and he shall be spitted like a
lark : if he have any notion that the brain
retain its sensitiveness after the body dies, the
sabre may be resorted to with success. We
have heard that some heads have stood proof
against this formidable weapon ; but, with
the exception of honest Sancho's, the'e is no
one on record that can be relied on. Sancho,
thou flower of squires errant, thou hadst a
head indeed ! It was no more to be over-
come than thine appetite : it had a tongue,
and a face attached to it, that have made the
reputation of La Mancha. Thou didst immor-
talize thy master, honest Sancho, and thyself:
thou hast pleased the people of other times,
and delighted those of the present, and the
fame of thy stomach and thy jokes will not be
lost upon posterity. Peace to thy bones, which
had but small peace on earth, thou pleasant
model of Iberean squires !

It was no easy thing to please a master of
fence in former days. The system was too
artificial. The position, like that of a spread
eagle, was altogether inferior to that of the
pugilist. You had to balance yourself like a
rope-dancer, and hold out your " cold iron "
offensively ; but you were sure to be weary
before your adversary was finished. Hear
one of the masters speak, and marvel not,
gentle reader, that the fashion has gone out.
It is Capt. Bobadil who talks, and it is Ben
Jonson (old Ben) who supplies him with dis-
" Come on : oh ! twine your body



more about, that you may fall to a more sweet,
comely, gentlemanlike guard. So, indifferent :
hollow your body more, Sir, thus : now stand
fast o' your left leg, note your distance, keep
your due proportion of time ! Oh ! you dis-
order your point most irregularly." Disorder !
Is it to be endured that a man must submit to
these distortions, and have them called grace?
Had Fencing been worthy of its reputation it
would have lived. But it is gone. The " im-
mortal passado" is forgotten: we scarcely
know the meaning of it ourselves. The most
elegant fencers that we know of were Eustace
(in Fletcher's comedy of the Elder Brother),
and the gay and gallant Sir Harry Wildnir.
They were, indeed, ethereal spirits ; yet we
should have liked them as well whether they
had fenced, or split bullets on the edge of a
knife. Had they been handlers of the gloves
indeed but it was in vain to lament : perfec-
tion is not for the earth.

THE PISTOL is a dangerous weapon. It
should be used cautiously as a friend, and
avoided altogether as an enemy. It is, indeed,
an imperative weapon, and may no more be
disputed than an invitation to Court. It is a
convincing weapon. It comes upon one, not
in the shape of an argument fine-spun or wire-
drawn, but like the breath of an oracle. It
has more of the proverb, in short, than the
syllogism about it. It is the ipse dixit of
death, which there is no refuting. The pistol
has done its work in England and France ;
but it is chiefly in the sister country that it
has found friends. It may be said to be a
denizen of the Emerald Isle. Coffee and
pistols for two was an order to which the
waiters of Dublin were accustomed to attend
without either hesitation or surprise. There
were no unnecessary questions asked, but gen-
tlemen were left to amuse themselves as they
might. This was really a fine period : the
Irish are a fine people. There was the fairest
play in the world at their duels. The ground
was measured, and the pistols primed, in the
presence of hundreds : if the parties escaped
it was well : if they did not escape, why it
was well still. Their courage and their virtues
were the theme of many a jovial party ; and
their names survived for weeks beyond their
deaths a serious period in the Irish calendar.

When the SHILLELAH came into fashion we
cannot learn : but, as it may be considered as
almost a foreign weapon, we shall not treat of
it. Its virtues have been principally felt in
Ireland be there the record made. It is, we
apprehend, an unadorned stick, not unlike
the common cudgel, and used in a similar
manner. It has been the subject of song, and
the arbiter of many a dispute.

BOXING. So many names so many battles
so many arguments, press upon us now,
that we suspect we shall fail from very excess.
We shall shear our article of its honors from
the mere apprehension of awarding too much.
We have a sense of plethora upon us, that



T24



PIERCE EGAN'S BOOK OF SPORTS.



may perhaps scare us into dullness of speech,
or eventually reduce us to meagreness of de-
tail. How shall we break cover? Shall we
begin with the Greeks ? No : they were not
true boxers. They cased their hands in steel,
and pelted away at each other's heads, but it
was with perseverance rather than science,
We will commence our remarks on English
ground. Our course may be rambling, but we
will make our stand there, till the battle be
done.

How pleasant are our associations with box-
ing ! Its name, " the Fancy !" (the Fancy !)
How delicate ! how distinguishing ! how free
from vulgarity ! what an air it has ! It
breathes of Moulsey. The muffles seem to
dance before our eyes; the ropes are near us,
and the handkerchiefs fly flaunting ia the
wind.

Historians and poets have been mighty fond
of scribbling at large about soldiers, as if
there were half the merit in annoying your
adversary, or defending yourself, with wea-
pons as without them. It is really idle to
waste a doubt on the subject. There is none.
We hear talk of heroes and laurels, and so
forth, at a great rate, but we must confess that
we never thought much of any of the feats of
antiquity, until we read that Milo had knocked
down a bull with his fist, and eaten him up
afterwards. That really is a serious fact, and
should astonish us accordingly. But let us
see how the matter stands. The ancients had
heroes, and so have we : but was Ajax braver
than Gregson ? was he bigger than Perrins ?
No. Was Achilles to be compared to the
Game Chicken? Pshaw! Hen would have
threshed Mars himself with very little trouble.
Then Jem Belcher and Tom they may surely
be placed by the side of Castor and Pollux ;
and Dutch Sam might have been seen near
Agis, or even Alexander, with advantage.
Molineux, bating his colour, would have been
a mutch for Hercules ; and Cribb gives one no
unfavorable idea of the great god Pan. Cy.
Davis is the beau ideal of fighters the Apollo
of the ring. Spring is an absolute Greek in
lineament. Readers, gentle readers, weigh
these men in the fair scales of your opinion,
before ye prefer other heroes to the fighters
of your native country. More anon.



THE SPORTS, PASTIMES, AND HABITS OF OUR
FOREFATHERS CONTRASTED WITH MODERN

MANNERS.

In an account of London, written about
1174 (Richard Cceur de Lion), we have a de-
scription of the impenetrable forests (the pre-
sent Mary-le-bone) to the north of London,
and of " a pleasant place called Smythefields,
without one of the citie gates, and even in the
very suburbs. Here there is a celebrated ren-
dezvous of fine horses to be sold. Thither
come earls, barons, knights, and a swarm of
citizens. 'Tis a pleasing sight to behold the



ambling nags so smoothly moving by raising
and putting down alternately the two side
feet together." From this it "is evident that
our ancestors broke in their horses to that un-
natural pacing; now witnessed only in America.
We find that in former times great complaints
were made that the dealers in Smithfield,
among other tricks, contrived to make the
horses swallow live eels or snakes, their ac-
tion in the belly of the horses milking them
appear lively and frisky. The horse-races in
Smithfield are then described (1174). But
" on Shrove Tuesday the boys of all the
schools (of London) bring to their masters
each one his fighting-cock, and they are in-
dulged all the morning with seeing their cocks
fight in the school -room. After this all the
boys go into Smithfield or Moorfield, in the
suburbs, and address themselves to the famous
game of foot-ball. The scholars of eacli school
have their peculiar ball, and the particular
trades have most of them theirs. The elders
of the city, and the fathers, and the rich and
the wealthy, do come on horseback to see the
exercise of the youth. Every Sunday in Lent
a nobler train of young men take the field after
dinner, well mounted. The lay sons of the
citizens rush out of the gates in shoals, armed
with lances and shields ; the younger sort
with javelins pointed, but disarmed of their
steel : they ape the feats of war, and act the
sham fight. If the king happens to be near
the city, many courtiers honor them with their
presence, together with the juvenile parts of
the household of the earls, barons, and bishops.
At Easter the diversion is on the water. A
target is strongly fastened to a mast fixed ia
the middle of the river; and a youngster,
standing upright in the stern of a boat made
to move as strong as the oars and current can.
carry it, is to strike the target with his lance ;
and if, in hitting it, he break his lance, and
keep his place in the boat, he gains his point ;
but if it happen that the lance is not shivered
by the force of the blow, he is, of course,
tumbled into the water, and away goes his
vessel without him. However, a couple of
boats, full of young men, are placed on each
side of the target, ready to pick him up the
moment he comes to the surface. The bridge
and the balconies on the banks are filled with
spectators, whose business it is to laugh. On
holidays the pastime of the youth is to exer-
cise themselves in archery, running, leaping,
wrestling, casting of stones, flinging to certain
distances, and, lastly, with bucklers. The
maidens, as soon as the moon rises, dance to
the guitar. In the winter holidays the youth
are entertained with boars fighting to the last
gasp, and likewise with hogs, full tusked, or
game bulls, and bears of large bulk are baited
with dogs. And when that vast lake which
waters London to the north. Fens-bury (Fins-
bury), is hard frozen, the youth, in great num-
bers, go to divert themselves on the ice. Some
will make a large cake of ice, and, seating one
of their companions upon it, they tak*i hold of



PIERCE EGAN'S BOOK OF SPORTS



125



one another's hands, and draw him along :
sometimes they do all fall down headlong.
Others place the leg-bones of animals under
their feet, by tying them round their ancles,
and then, taking a pole shod with iron into
their hands, they push themselves forward,
and are carried with a velocity equal to the
flight of a bird, or a bolt discharged from a"
cross-bow. Sometimes two of them start op-
posite to each other, at a great distance. They
meet, elevate their poles, attack, and strike
each other, when one or both of them fall ;
and even after their fall they shall be carried
a good distance from each other by the rapidity
of the motion. Many of the citizens take
great delight in fowling with merlins, hawks,
and such like ; and likewise in hunting, and
they have a right and privilege of hunting in
Middlesex, Hertfordshire, and all the Chiltern
country, and in Kent as far as the river Cray."
Such were the sports of our stout ancestors in
London, in the days of Cceur de Lion, nearly
seven hundred years ago. Our ancestors,
however, were a sad set of savages; for, shortly
after, we find a mob rushing into the tower,
and dragging out the archbishop of Canter-
bury, and murdering him on Tower Hill.
" There lay his body unburied all that Friday,
and the morrow till afternoone, none daring to
deliver his body to the sepulture. His head
these wicked tooke, and nayling thereon his
hoode, they fix it on a pole, and set it on Lon-
don bridge." So poor also were our ancestors
about this period, that we find Henry III.
commanding the sheriffs to pay him fourpence
a day for the keep of a Norway bear, which
he had received as a present ; " and he also
commanded them to provide a muzzle for the
said bear, and an iron chain to hold him out
of the water, and likewise a long and stout
cord to hold him whilst fishing in the river
Thames. Two years after he ordered the she-
riffs to erect a house forty feet long by twenty
feet wide, for the reception of an elephant
which had been sent to him by Lewis, king of
France." Of this huge beast, the first seen in
England, great complaints were made by our
simple ancestors, the sheriffs representing that
" verily this monstrous beast from Ind does
consume marvelously the provisions, eating
up the substance of many worshipful gentle-
men, and it does sorely distress his majesty's
loyal servants. We do humbly wish we were
well rid of it, so please Providence, and be it
his majesty's pleasure." The bear supported
itself by fishing in the Thames, which, at that
period, was redundant of large fish, and par-
ticularly of salmon. The practice of " cart-
ing" in the city, of which so much has recently
been said, we trace to the year 1383, the
seventh of Richard II. " The citizens of
London first imprisoned such women as were
taken in fornication or adultery, in the Tunn
prison, in Cornhill, and after caused them to
be brought forth in the sight of the world.
They caused their heads to be shaven after
the manner of thieves, and so to be led about
the city, with trumpets and pipes sounding



before them, that their persons might be more
largely known. Neither did they spare the
men." In November, 1552 [Elizabeth], we
find, by the records of the Court of Aldermen,
" It was this day orderyred and agryed that
sir Thomas Sowdeley, who did not deny, but
playnly confess, this day, in full Corte, that
he hathe kept, and viciously and carnally