Egan, Wrestling (1827)

A copy of the August 26th 1827 edition of Pierce Egan’s “Life in London and Sporting Guide”, with several vignettes of sporting activities as the headings to various news items (1827). Woodcut

Content:

WRESTLING.

The feats of Cann, Polkinhorne, Copp, Gaffney, and the whole of the Wrestlers faithfully recorded.

“Now clear the Ring: for, hand to hand,
The manly Wrestlers take their stand.
Two o’er the rest superior rose,
And proud demanded mightier foes.
Not call’d in vain; for Douglas came.
—For life is Hugh of Lambert lame,
Scarce better John of Allot’s fare,
Whom senseless home his comrades bear.
Prize of the wrestling match, the King
To Douglas gave a golden ring.”

Available online at The British Museum (id: 1978,U.398). Includes a woodcut illustration by George Cruikshank.

Credit to Tom Billinge for tracking down the inventory reference.

© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.