Running Recollections and How to Train

135 the 29th September, 1811. Cribb arrived at Urie to commence training on the 7th July, and, to quote a contemporary record, "he then weighed 16 stone, and from his mode of living in London, and the confinement of a crowded city, he had become corpulent, big bellied, full of gross humours, and short-breathed, and it was with difficulty he could walk ten miles." Before the end of August Cribb'sweight was reduced to 13st. 51bs.,which was found to be pitch of condition. We may conclude from this that one" Thomas Cribbwas put through the mill" in no half-hearted fashion; but that he was put into the ring in fine condition there can be no possible doubt. The great fault with old-time trainers wotildappear to be that they went in for too much " training," and ot enough practice ; noamount of sweating will improve a man without the practice. The art of training for athletic exercises consists of purifying thebody and strengthening its powers by certain processes, whichthus qualify a person for laborious exertions. It was known to the ancients, who paid much attention to the means of augmenting corporeal vigour and activity and, accordingly, among the Greeks and Romans, certain rules of regimen and exercise were prescribed to the candidates for gymnastic celebrity. The great object of training for running or boxing matches isto increase the muscular strength, and to improve the freeaction of the lungs, or wind, of the personsubjected to the process, which is done by medicines, regimen, and exercise. That these objects can be accomplished is evident from the nature of the human system. It iswell known (for it has been demonstrated by experiments) that every part of the firmest bones is successively absorbed and