Hone’s Everyday book (1827)

Wrestling

IN CORNWALL AND DEVONSHIRE.

To the Editor.

Sir,-The ready insertion given to my letter on the above subject, in the second volume of the Every-Day Book, (p. 1009,) encourages me to hope that you will as readily insert the present, which enters more fully into the merits of this ancient sport, as practised in both counties, than any other communication you have as yet lain before your numerous readers.

Having been the first person to call your attention to the merits of Polkinhorne, Parkins, and Warren, of Cornwall, (to which I could easily have added the names of some dozen or two more, equally deserving of notice,) I was much amused at the article you extracted from the London Magazine, (into the Every-Day Book, vol. ii. p. 1337) because I was present at the sport there spoken of; and being well acquainted with the play, and an eye-witness, I found the picture much too highly coloured.

I am neither a Cornwall nor a Devon man myself, but have resided in both counties for the last ten years, and am really an admirer of Abraham Cann, of Devon, whose behaviour in the ring no one can at all complain of: he is a fine fellow, but so is Polkinhorne, and, beyond doubt, the latter is ” much the better man;” he threw Cann an acknowledged fair fall, and I regret he left the ring on the bud advice of those whom he thought then his friends. Had he not, I am certain he would have thrown Cann ” over and over again.”

In a late number of the Table Book (p. 416) is given an extract from Homer, to show that Ulysses’ mode of wrestling was similar to that of Abraham Cann; it may be so; but what does Achilles say upon the subject:-

“Your nobler vigour, oh, my friends, restrain :

Nor weary out your gen’rous strength in vain.

Ye both have won: let others who excel

Now prove that prowess you have prov’d so well.” 

Now Abraham Cann, with his monstrous shoe, and most horrible mode of kicking, has never yet been able to throw Polkin-horne, nor do I think he has the power or skill to enable him to do so. His defeat of Gaffney has added no laurel to his brow for the Irishman had not a shadow of chance; nor is there an Irishman or a Cornishman, now in London, that would

stand any chance with Cann; but he would find several awkward opponents if he would meet those from Westmoreland, Carlisle and Cann the latter very properly received the stakes, on account of the former having quitted the ring on conceiving he had won the day, by throwing two falls. The second throw, on reference to the umpires, was after some time deemed not a fair back fall.—This, however, is foreign to my purpose; which is to systematically explain the methods of wrestling in Cornwall and Devon.

I have seen in Cornwall more persons present at these games, when the prize has only been a gold-laced hat, a waistcoat, or a pair of gloves, than ever attend the sports of Devon, (where the prizes are very liberal—for they don’t like to be kicked severely for a trifle,) or even at the famed meetings of later days in London, at the Eagle in the City Road, or the Golden Eagle in Mile End. How is this? Why, in the latter places, six, eight, and, at farthest, twelve standards are as much as a day’s play will admit of; while in Cornwall I have seen forty made in one day. At Penzance, on Monday, 24th ult.,* thirty standards were made, and the match concluded the day following. In Devon, what with the heavy shoes and thick padding, and tire lost in equipment and kicking, half that number cannot be made in a day: I have frequently seen men obliged to leave the ring, and abandon the chance of a prize, owing solely to the hurt they have received by kicks from the knee downwards; and let me here add, that I have been present when even Cann’s brothers, or relations, have been obliged to do so.. So much for kicking.— To the eye of a beholder unacquainted with wrestling, the Cornish mode must appear as play, and that of Devon barbarous.—It is an indisputable fact, that no Cornish wrestler of any note ever frequents the games in Devon; and that whenever those from Devon have played in Cornwall, they have been thrown: Jordan by Parkins, and so on.

At a Cornish wrestling, a man’s favourite play can be seen by the hitch or holdfast he takes; as right or left, which is sure to be crossed by left and right, and the struggle immediately commences. The off-hand play is that in which the men have each a gripe on his adversary’s collar, or on the collar and opposite elbow, or wrist; when

• See the West Briton paper of the 5th October.