Athletics and Football (extract)

ATHLETIC SPORTS IN ENGLAND 13 However, under the first two Stuart kings both the upper classesand such of the lower classesas werenot converted to Puritanism showed an undiminishedvigour for athletic sports. Peacham, who published his ' Compleat Gentleman 7 in 1622, gives a list of the sports which a gentleman should practise. First of all comes, of course, riding. It is the 'great and most noble' sport, for ' kings have always delighted to ride.' Throwing the hammer and wrestlingare low-class sports, ' not so well beseeming nobility but rather soldiers in a camp ;' f neither,' he goeson, ' have I read or heard of any prince or general commended for wrestling save Epaminondas and Achmat, the last emperor of Turkey.' This worthy, it appears, made a ' record ' for hammer-throwing, and ' there was reared in Constantinople, for one extraordinarycast which none could come near, twogreat pillars of marble.' Our modern 'record- breakers ' receive a medal sometimes, but the event is not re­ corded upon marble pillars, because, perhaps, the record- breakers are not emperors. Peacham, however, thinks highly of running, and in its praise he gives a shameful plagiarism fromthe book of Sir Thomas Elyot, to which we have referred before. Running is good because Achilles and Alexander were runners, and jumping is good becauseEpaminondas and Alexander jumped before breakfast. However, he gives his own opinion that these exercises are ' commendable.' What­ ever mayhave been the merits or demerits of the Stuarts, there can be no question that sportsmenowe a debt of gratitude to them. James L, though he was not an athlete himself, and though he objected to football,yet gave a general encourage­ ment to sports, both byprecept in his work, ' Basilikon Doron,' and by practice in frequentlyacting as refereeor judge. The followingextract from the ' Basilikon Doron,' whichwasa work of precepts to his son, is interesting: ' And amongst all un- necessaire things which are lawful and expedient I think exercises of the body most commendable to be used by a youngprince. For albeit I grant it to be most requisitefor a king to exercise his engine, which surely with idleness will