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WRESTLING
WRESTLING
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Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original edition for your reading pleasure. (Worth every penny!)
***
An excerpt from the:
INTRODUCTION.
Wrestling, though generally described by its exponents and admirers as an ancient English exercise, has claims far beyond this on history. So far as we can ascertain, it was the first form of athletic pastime, man's chief desire having been, from the beginning of the world, to get his fellow down—and too often to keep him there. Not only is a wrestling match to be found recorded in Holy Writ, but many of the earliest painters and sculptors with a taste for scriptural subject have made the combat between Michael and Lucifer a match at "fair holds" the latter coming to grief, generally by the "back-heel," the "click," or the "hipe," as the fancy or taste of the artist dictated.
When Greece, emerging from obscurity and ignorance, began to take the lead in civilization, in military knowledge, and in the cultivation of learning and sciences, the utility of public games, not only to infuse a generous and martial spirit into the minds of the young men, but also to increase their bodily strength, was too apparent to be neglected. Accordingly, we find that wrestling and other athletic exercises were not only practised in each particular state, but that the highest honours and rewards were bestowed on the victors at the Olympic, Nemean, and other games, where prizes were awarded and contended for before the whole nation. Without doubt, wrestling, beyond almost any other exercise, gives strength and firmness, combined with quickness and pliability to the limbs, vigour to the body, coolness and discrimination to the head, and elasticity to the temper, the whole forming an energetic combination of the greatest power to be found in man.
The influence of athletic sports in advancing Greece from a few petty states into the most powerful kingdom at that lime in the world is universally acknowledged by all historians and commentators who have ever dealt with the subject. It is singular, however, to remark that while the fact is admitted by all modern legislators, few, or none, have recommended an imitation of the manly games referred to. Extracts could be selected from ancient history to prove the estimation in which this and other athletic exercises were held from the earliest period; but in this brief commentary it will be sufficient if we confine ourselves to a more recent date.
We are told that in the celebrated interview between Henry the Eighth of England and the French King Francis, which almost vied in magnificence and splendour with any spectacle of modern times, wrestling was deemed the most manly and entertaining amusement then exhibited in the presence of those two mighty monarchs and their courts. A great, and what would at the present day be called an international, display took place between a number of champions selected from both nations, in which our countrymen were victorious. However, one mortified French historian pretends their king left better wrestlers at home, and asserts that Francis himself was a most excellent wrestler, and in a contest between the two rival monarchs threw Henry with great violence. There is a certain amount of French gasconade as to the issue of the contest easily observable. If Henry was silly enough, out of courtesy to Francis, to compete according to French rules, his defeat is easily understood, as the Gallic style of wrestling is the most absurd of all known systems.
Sir Walter Scott, in the fifth canto of "The Lady of the Lake," gives the following account of a wrestling match in the presence of the romantic King James, of Flodden memory:—
"Now clear the ring, for hand to hand
The manly wrestlers take their stand.
Two o'er the rest superior rose,
And proud demanded mightier foes;
Nor called in vain: for Douglas came;
For life is Hugh of Lambert lame;
Scarce better John of Alloa's fare,
Whom senseless home his comrades bare.
Prize of the wrestling match, the King
To Douglas gave the golden ring."
This encounter was evidently on the catch-hold principle, as the words " hand to hand " give ample testimony that such was the system under which the champions competed. Again, in "The Antiquary," Sir Walter gives but a lame account of the encounter between Bothwell and Burley— "In the first struggle, the trooper seemed to have some advantage, and also in the second, though neither could be considered as decisive. In the third close, the countryman lifted his opponent fairly from the floor, and hurled him to the ground with such violence, that he lay for an instant stunned and motionless."
The celebrated James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, has also introduced wrestling into his tales; but, as Hogg himself, when he stripped for the fray, was in the habit of wrestling in top-boots...
***
An excerpt from the:
INTRODUCTION.
Wrestling, though generally described by its exponents and admirers as an ancient English exercise, has claims far beyond this on history. So far as we can ascertain, it was the first form of athletic pastime, man's chief desire having been, from the beginning of the world, to get his fellow down—and too often to keep him there. Not only is a wrestling match to be found recorded in Holy Writ, but many of the earliest painters and sculptors with a taste for scriptural subject have made the combat between Michael and Lucifer a match at "fair holds" the latter coming to grief, generally by the "back-heel," the "click," or the "hipe," as the fancy or taste of the artist dictated.
When Greece, emerging from obscurity and ignorance, began to take the lead in civilization, in military knowledge, and in the cultivation of learning and sciences, the utility of public games, not only to infuse a generous and martial spirit into the minds of the young men, but also to increase their bodily strength, was too apparent to be neglected. Accordingly, we find that wrestling and other athletic exercises were not only practised in each particular state, but that the highest honours and rewards were bestowed on the victors at the Olympic, Nemean, and other games, where prizes were awarded and contended for before the whole nation. Without doubt, wrestling, beyond almost any other exercise, gives strength and firmness, combined with quickness and pliability to the limbs, vigour to the body, coolness and discrimination to the head, and elasticity to the temper, the whole forming an energetic combination of the greatest power to be found in man.
The influence of athletic sports in advancing Greece from a few petty states into the most powerful kingdom at that lime in the world is universally acknowledged by all historians and commentators who have ever dealt with the subject. It is singular, however, to remark that while the fact is admitted by all modern legislators, few, or none, have recommended an imitation of the manly games referred to. Extracts could be selected from ancient history to prove the estimation in which this and other athletic exercises were held from the earliest period; but in this brief commentary it will be sufficient if we confine ourselves to a more recent date.
We are told that in the celebrated interview between Henry the Eighth of England and the French King Francis, which almost vied in magnificence and splendour with any spectacle of modern times, wrestling was deemed the most manly and entertaining amusement then exhibited in the presence of those two mighty monarchs and their courts. A great, and what would at the present day be called an international, display took place between a number of champions selected from both nations, in which our countrymen were victorious. However, one mortified French historian pretends their king left better wrestlers at home, and asserts that Francis himself was a most excellent wrestler, and in a contest between the two rival monarchs threw Henry with great violence. There is a certain amount of French gasconade as to the issue of the contest easily observable. If Henry was silly enough, out of courtesy to Francis, to compete according to French rules, his defeat is easily understood, as the Gallic style of wrestling is the most absurd of all known systems.
Sir Walter Scott, in the fifth canto of "The Lady of the Lake," gives the following account of a wrestling match in the presence of the romantic King James, of Flodden memory:—
"Now clear the ring, for hand to hand
The manly wrestlers take their stand.
Two o'er the rest superior rose,
And proud demanded mightier foes;
Nor called in vain: for Douglas came;
For life is Hugh of Lambert lame;
Scarce better John of Alloa's fare,
Whom senseless home his comrades bare.
Prize of the wrestling match, the King
To Douglas gave the golden ring."
This encounter was evidently on the catch-hold principle, as the words " hand to hand " give ample testimony that such was the system under which the champions competed. Again, in "The Antiquary," Sir Walter gives but a lame account of the encounter between Bothwell and Burley— "In the first struggle, the trooper seemed to have some advantage, and also in the second, though neither could be considered as decisive. In the third close, the countryman lifted his opponent fairly from the floor, and hurled him to the ground with such violence, that he lay for an instant stunned and motionless."
The celebrated James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, has also introduced wrestling into his tales; but, as Hogg himself, when he stripped for the fray, was in the habit of wrestling in top-boots...
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