Athletics and Football (extract)

ATHLETIC SPORTS IN ENGLAND 23 hung up by the person whogets it in one of the most conspicu­ ous parts of the house, and looked upon by the wholefamily as something redounding much more to their honour than a coat-of-arms.' One youngfellow, who' carried an Air of Im­ portance in his looks,' appeared to have a reason for his pride, for ' he and his ancestors had won so many hats that his par­ lour looked like a haberdasher's shop.' The young maids also, it seems, took part in the diversions, for a farmer's son being asked what he was gazingat, says ' that he was seeing Betty Welch, his sweetheart, pitch a bar.' That running matches were also common at these wakes is clear from the comment of the ' Spectator' upon the letter. He says that a country fellow whowins a competition is usuallylikely to win a mistress at the same time, and ' nothing is more usual than for a nimble-footed wench to get a husband at the same time she winsa smock.' A smock,or, as another writer says,' a she- shirt,' was the regular prize for women at these rustic sports, and a hat for men, so that the pot-hunters and pot-huntresses of the day had less temptation to turn their prizesinto money than comes to the winnersof the silver and plated trophies of the present day. Bath, however, was not the chief place in the West of England remarkable for its athletic meetings. Strutt, who wrote in 1801, gives an account of two important annual gatherings in the West Country, one on the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire, and the other upon Holgaver Moor, near Bodmin in Cornwall. To the first he says that ' prodigious multitudes constantly resorted. Robert Dover, an attorney of Barton-on-the-Heath, in the county ofWorcester,was fortyyears the chief director of these pastimes. They consisted of wrest­ ling, cudgel-playing, leaping, pitching the bar, throwing the sledge, tossing the pike, with various other feats of strength and activity. Captain Dover receivedpermissionfrom James I. to hold these sports, and he appeared at their celebration in the veryclothes which that monarch had formerly worn, but with much more dignity in his air and aspect.' ' I do not