Athletics and Football (extract)

4 ATHLETICS be asserted that there have been running matches ; and in every warlike nation feats of strength, speed, and endurance of the body have excited admiration. With but few nations, however, have athletic exercises formed an art and become a feature of national life; and where this has been the case there is a history, and an interesting history, of the practice of feats of strength and speed. To write such a history of English athletic sport is no easy task ; for, as far as this writer is aware, it has never been seriouslyattempted before. The learned Strutt, whose work is such a mine of wealth to sport­ ing antiquarians, contents himself with informing his readers that ' it is needless to assert the antiquity of foot-racing, because it will readilyoccur to everyone that occasions con­ tinually present themselves which call forth the exertions of running. . . . Originally,perhaps, foot-races had no other incitement than emulation,or at best the prospect of a small reward, but in process of time the rewards were magnified, and contests of this kind were instituted as public amuse­ ments—the ground marked out and judges appointed to decide upon the fairness of the race and to bestow the re­ ward.' Such an d priori method of writinghistory will hardly account satisfactorily for the present form of athletic sport in England. The only other writer, as far as we are aware, who has attempted to explain the origin of English athletics to modern readers has given an excellent essay upon Greek athletics, and has then assured us that 'in one respect our position is like that of the Romans. Athletics are not indi­ genous with us.' It is our object in the present chapter to show with what successwe can that competitions in running, jumping, and hurlingof heavy weightsare not only indigenous to the land, but have been one of the chief characteristicsof both town and country lifein England as far back as chronicles willreach ; and that athletic sports, though they have had their days of waxing and waning, have always been a feature of life in ' Merrie England.' It is difficult to obtain much information of the sports of