The London Magazine (1826)

WRESTLING.

THE amateurs of athletic performances were gratified towards the end of last month, with an exhibition of the old national feat of wrestling. Several matches were played between Devonshire and Cornwall men, on the 19th, 20th, and 21st, at the Eagle Tavern green, in the City Road.—The science displayed on the occasion shows, that we are in some respects the same people as our ancestors were in the “good old times,” when rustic games attracted the notice of courts; and that, in recounting the achievements in this line of our forefathers, we may not use Homer’s illustration of the feats in the heroic age before him, when he represents Ajax as performing what two men’s strength in his times would be unable to accomplish. The first day, every Cornish and Devon hero was free to throw his hat in the ring, as a challenge to any adversary of the opposing county. Several very pretty contests took place, in which the victory was not always to the strong; there was an agility and pliancy of limb in the diminutive, that sometimes ensured them the throw: some of these seemed incapable of being laid with both shoulders to the ground, as the law of wrestle requires.—The variety of movement and attitude far exceeded that exhibited in the pugilistic combat.—If we might hazard a rash observation, we should say, that there is a degree of sublimity in this game, exceeding that attached to more dangerous exertions of bodily vigour. We know, indeed, that it is but play, from which no great injury can ensue, and therefore that the great tragic emotion, fear, which exalts human effort, is absent; but then, so far as it goes, the struggle is no less animated than one of life and death—every muscle is in play, the mind is concentrated upon one object, upon which eye and limb are equally intent. You may imagine it the beginning of a death-grapple, in which two wary, unarmed enemies encounter.—They lace their limbs tightly together, strain every sinew, throw their bodies into violent contortions, till human power is at its utmost stretch, and then one or both come to the ground. With savages this would be but the precursor of the death of one ; with Englishmen it is the decision of the contest. They rise, and reciprocate that ancient pledge of honour and good humour, the shake of the hand, submitting to an umpire as to the fairness of the fall. It is at such spectacles as these, that the statuary will imbibe the boldest conceptions of the human form in a state of activity; and probably it is owing to the general neglect of gymnastic sports, that the moderns have made so much less progress in the higher branches of sculpture, than the ancients; among whom, all exercises that tended to liberate and develop the frame were in such high repute. Nor was it to muscular freedom alone, that the emulation fostered by the Olympic games conduced; it was found likewise to excite to great and heroic deeds. As in later days, the spectari dum talia facerit was the impelling motive to efforts almost superhuman. This passion for fame and applause was found to be best promoted by those public exhibitions, in which no reward but a simple emblem of distinction was to be won. It is to be presumed, that the Greeks were not so hard-pinched for subsistence, as our labourers and mechanics are, or an olive crown would not have had so many charms in their eyes, as the silver crowns for which the Cornish and Devon wrestlers played. But be the prize what it may, the more trilling it is, the less will be the chance of such corrupt venality creeping in, as that which has almost extirpated pugilism. It is for this reason we hope, that if wrestling should replace boxing, the Corinthians will not, by staking large sums, tempt the honesty of the players. There can be but little doubt, that the present degraded state of the Fancy is attributable to the discordant union of the vices of the nobility, with the sports of the vulgar. The gangrene of betting has infected almost all our old games, but we trust that this one of wrestling will survive in those districts which have become celebrated for it„ and that it will long prove a recreation to the hardy miners of Cornwall and Cumberland—men whose days are passed in dangerous pits, and whose pastimes, therefore, should be of a rough and fear-dispelling nature. And we hope that the peasantry of England generally, will long preserve among the customs handed down by their merry ancestors, a game, which proves a good and harmless vent for that untameable love of display and hardihood, that combativeness (to borrow a scientific word) which in other nations finds its issue in savage battles with sticks, swords, and knives, or in lawless associations of bandits of some kind or other.

The above mentioned matches were noticed in The Times of the 23d ult. but in so partial a manner in favour of Cornwall, that we suspect the writer of the paragraph to be from that ancient duchy: or possibly he maybe an intended candidate for some Cornish borough, in which the electors are amateurs of this diversion.—Indeed the rottenness of the system there, seems to have altogether infected the natives, even in their sporting transactions.—The Cornish committee had appointed a Cornish referee, and this one would not admit a countryman to have been thrown, even when the dirt on both shoulders proclaimed it to all eyes.—His decision obliged Cann, the Devonshire champion, to throw one man, Burdoe, three times; and his antagonist for the first prize, Warren, twice. Previous to the final struggle however, the Cornish Judge was almost unanimously voted off, and a new referee appointed. Another unfairness in the committee, was matching the Devonshire champion against the next best Devonshire wrestler, Middleton, who might probably have carried off the prize from Warren.—This accounts for three out of four prizes being assigned to the Cornish side.

The difference in the style of wrestling of these two neighbouring shires, is as remarkable as that of the lineaments of their inhabitants. The florid chubby-faced Devon-man is all life and activity in the ring, holding himself erect, and offering every advantage to his opponent. The sallow sharp-featured Cornwall-man is all caution and resistance, bending himself in such a way, that his legs are inaccessible to his opponent, and waiting for the critical instant, when he can spring in upon his impatient adversary.

The contest between Abraham Cann and Warren, not only displayed this difference of style, but was attended with a degree of suspense between skill and strength, that rendered it extremely interesting.—The former, who is the son of a Devonshire farmer, has been backed against any man in England for 500£.

His figure is of the finest athletic proportions, and his arm realizes the muscularity of ancient specimens: his force in it is surprising; his hold is like that of a vice, and with ease he can pinion the arms of the strongest adversary, if he once grips them, and keep them as close together, or as far asunder, as he chooses. He stands with his legs apart, his body quite upright, looking down good humouredly on his crouching opponent.

—In this instance, his opponent Warren, a miner, was a man of superior size, and of amazing strength, not so well distributed however, throughout his frame; his arms and body being too lengthy in proportion to their bulk. His visage was harsh beyond measure, and lie did not disdain to use a little craft with eye and hand, in order to distract his adversary’s attention. But he had to deal with a man, as collected as ever entered the ring. Cann put in his hand as quietly as if he were going to seize a shy horse, and at length caught a slight hold between finger and thumb of Warren’s sleeve. At this, Warren flung away with the impetuosity of a surprised horse. But it was in vain; there was no escape from Cann’s pinch, so the miner seized his adversary in his turn, and at length both of them grappled each other by the arm and breast of the jacket. In a trice Cann tripped his opponent with the toe in a most scientific but ineffectual manner, throwing him clean to the ground, but not on his back, as required.

—The second heat begun similarly, Warren stooped more, so as to keep his legs out of Cannes reach, who punished him for it by several kicks below the knee, which must have told severely if his shoes had been on, according to his County’s fashion. They shook each other rudely—strained knee to knee—forced each other’s shoulders down, so as to overbalance the body—but all ineffectually.—They seemed to be quite secure from each other’s efforts, as long as they but held by the arm and breast-collar, as ordinary wrestlers do. A new grip was to be effected. Cann liberated one arm of his adversary to’ seize him by the cape behind: at that instant Warren, profiting by his inclined posture, and his long arms, threw himself round the body of the Devon champion, and fairly lifted him a foot from the ground, clutching him in his arms with the grasp of a second Anteseus.—The Cornish men shouted aloud, “Well done, Warren!” to their hero, whose naturally pale visage glowed with the hope of success. He seemed to have his opponent at his will, and to be fit to fling him, as Hercules flung Lycas, any how he pleased. Devonshire then trembled for its champion, and was mute. Indeed it was a moment of heartquaking suspense.

—But Cann was not daunted; his countenance expressed anxiety, but not discomfiture. He was off terra-firma, clasped in the embrace of a powerful man, who waited but a single struggle of his, to pitch him more effectually from him to the ground.—Without straining to disengage himself, Cann with unimaginable dexterity glued his back firmly to his opponent’s chest, lacing his feet round the other’s knee-joints, and throwing one arm backward over Warren’s shoulder, so as to keep his own enormous shoulder’s pressed upon the breast of his uplifter. In this position they stood at least twenty seconds, each labouring in one continuous strain, to bend the other, one backwards, the other forwards.—Such a struggle could not last. Warren, with the weight of the other upon his stomach and chest, and an inconceivable stress upon his spine, felt his balance almost gone, as the energetic movements of his countenance indicated.

—His feet too were motionless by the coil of his adversary’s legs round his; so to save himself from falling backwards, he stiffened his whole body from the ankles upwards, and these last being the only liberated joints, he inclined forwards from them, so as to project both bodies, and prostrate them in one column to the ground together.—It was like the slow and poising fall of an undermined tower.—You bad time to contemplate the injury which Cann the undermost would sustain if they fell in that solid, unbending posture to the earth. But Cann ceased bearing upon the spine as soon as he found his supporter going in an adverse direction. With a presence of mind unrateable, he relaxed his strain upon one of his adversary’s stretched legs, forcing the other outwards with all the might of his foot, and pressing his elbow upon the opposite shoulder. This was sufficient to whisk his man undermost the instant he unstiffened his knee—which Warren did not do until more than half way to the ground, when from the acquired rapidity of the falling bodies nothing was discernible.—At the end of the fall, Warren was seen sprawling on his back, and Cann, whom he had liberated to save himself, had been thrown a few yards off on all-fours. Of course the victory should have been adjudged to this last.—When the partial referee was appealed to, he decided, that it was not a fair fall, as only one shoulder had bulged the ground, though there was cvklence on the back of Warren that both had touched it pretty rudely.

—After much debating a new referee was appointed, and the old one expelled ; when the candidates again entered the lists. The crowning beauty of the whole was, that the second fall was precisely a counterpart of the other. Warren made- the same move, only lifting his antagonist higher, with a view to throw the upper part of his frame out of play. Cann turned himself exactly in the same mariner using much greater effort than before, and apparently more put to it, by his opponent’s great strength. His share, however, in upsetting his supporter was greater this time, as he relaxed one leg much sooner, and adhered closer to the chest during the fall; for at the close he was seen uppermost, still coiled round his supine adversary, who admitted the fall, starting up, and offering his hand to the victor. lie is a good wrestler too—so good, that we much question the authority of The Times for saying that he is not one of the crack wrestlers of Cornwall.—From his amazing strength, with common skill he should be a first-rate man at this play, but his skill is much greater than his countrymen seemed inclined to admit.

—Certain it is, they destined him the first prize, and had Cann not come up to save the honour of his county, for that was his only inducement, the four prizes, by judiciously matching the candidates, would no doubt have been given to natives of Cornwall. We trust that the trial between the two counties will instigate the crack men to come, and fairly meet each other, as such a measure might bring wrestling into vogue, and supply the gap left in the annals of Sporting by the extinction of the pugilistic club.