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Part 16: The island was then called Albion, and inhabited by none but a few giants. Notwithstanding this, the pleasant situation of the places, the plenty of rivers abounding with fish, and the engaging prospect of its woods, made Brutus and his company very desirous to fix their habitation in it. They therefore passed through all the provinces, […]
“As he went, by a bridge was a wrastling, And there taryed was he, And there was all the best yemen Of all the West Countrey. A full fayre game was set up ; A white bull, up ypyght ; A great courser with sadle and brydle With gold burnished full bryght. A payre […]
The Harleian Manuscript (MS.3542) Also known by the names ‘Harley’, ‘Man yt wol’. Until 17 May 1715 when the Harleian 3542 Manuscript came into the hands of the owner (from whom it now takes its name), the manuscript was in the possession of clerics around Honiton. The manuscript, dated to around 1440-1450, was therefore around […]
At Chasteubriant the French King shewed my Lord Marquess great plesure and disport, sometime in plaing at tenice, sometime in shooting, sometime in hunting the bore, somtime at the palla malla, and somtime with his great boisterlie Britons wrastling with my lorde’s yemen of Cornwall, who had much a do to gete the upper hand […]
A printed Letters Patent bearing the coat of arms of Mary I, renewing the royal commission originally granted by Henry VIII in 1540 to the Corporation of Masters of the Science of Defence. The single-sheet document contains both Latin chancery formulae and English text granting fencing masters authority to arrest, prosecute, and imprison unauthorised martial […]
Book 1, Page 1: Cornwall, the fartheſt Shire of England Weſtwards, hath her name by diuers Authors diverſly deriued. Some (as our owne Chroniclers) draw it from Corineus, couſin to Brute, the first Conqueror of this Iland : who wrastling at Plymmouth (as they say) with a mightie Giant, called Gogmagog, threw him ouer Cliffe, […]
On Tueſday being the fift day of Auguſt, and the great feſtiuall for our Kinges Maieſties preſeruation from Gowries treaſons : The Kinges Maieſtie of Denmarke ran at the Tilt in perſon, and diuers other noble perſonages; where his Maieſtie expreſt an able and induring bodie, how it was gouernd by an invincible mind, inricht […]
Reference ORIGINAL MODERNISED The praise of Plymouth (p6, First Song) The christning of that Bay, which beares her nobler name. Vpon the British coast, what ship yet euer came That not of Plymouth heares, where those braue Nauies lie, From Canons thundring throats, that all the world defie? Which, to inualue spoile, when th’English […]
Dramatis Personiae: PUPPY, a Wrestler (a Western Man). Reference (pp. 233-234): Enter EDGWORTH. Quar. ’Slid, I forgot that, pray you pardon me.—Look, here’s our Mercury come; the license arrives in the finest time too! ’tis but scraping out Cokes his name, and ’tis done. Winw. How now, lime-twig, hast thou touch’d? Edg. Not yet, sir; except you would go with […]
Swetnam was a prominent Fencing Master from Bristol, who was The Master of Defence in Plymouth for many years. This is core material within the DWS. Full modernised version by the DWS, currently being prepared. THE SCHOOLE OF THE NOBLE And Worthy Science of Defence. Being the first of any English-mans invention, which professed the […]
A personal account of a combat between Richard Peeke (Tavistock, Devon), and three Spanish rapiermen. The event happened on 15th November 1625. Peeke documented his account in July 1626. Three-to-One: Being an English-Spanish combat performed by a Western Gentleman of Tavistock in Devonshire, with an English quarterstaff, against three Spaniards [ at once ] with […]
A Play based upon the true-story of Richard Peeke, from Tavistock, Devon. Peeke wrote his story in Three-to-One: Being an English-Spanish Combat (1625). This play appeared in Egerton MS 1994, a folio composite volume of plays. c.1620s-1640s. From the library of Lord Charlemont. Entries: CELM, Wikipedia. It appeared at ff. 30r-51r- HyT 5: Thomas Heywood, Dick of […]
The men of dSurrey, Cheeky Blew and gold, (Which for braue Warren their first Earle they wore, In many a Field that honour’d was of olde:) And Hamshere next in the same Colours bore, Three Lions Passant, th’ Armes of Beuis bould, Who through the World so famous was of yore; A siluere Tower, Dorsets Red […]
Hyde-Park, May I, [1654.] This day there was a hurling of a great ball, by fifty Cornish gentfemen on the one side, and fifty on the other : one party played in red caps and the other in white. There was present His HIGHNESS THE LORD PROTECTOR, many of his privy council, and divers eminent […]
“The Cornish are masters of the art of wrestling, so that, if the Olympic games were now in fashion, they would come away with the victory. Their hug is a cunning close with their combatants, the fruit whereof is his fair fall or foil at the least.” Fuller, T (1662). History of the Worthies of […]
19th February 1667: I saw a comedy acted at Court. In the afternoone I saw a wrestling-match for £1000 in St. James’s Park, before his Maty, a world of lords and other spectators, ‘twixt the Western; and Northern men, Mr. Secretary Morice and Lo. Gerard being the judges. The Western men won. Many greate sums were betted. Evelyn, […]
John Carey’s fencing manuscript (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 5540, ff.122-123) is a fascinating window into the kinds of practice which was taking place in England at the end of the 17th century, around Bristol in the South West of England. Despite its potential importance, “It has never been printed…”, commented Aylward (156, 110), “…and it […]
A Prize Quart Pewter Tankard, labelled: “Won at the Fighting Cocks, Plaistford, As a prize for Back Sword Play. ” The exact date is unknown, however the accredited metal worker, Thomas Easton, was active between 1675-1695, so it must’ve been produced during this period. It’s unknown when it was presented as a prize. Museum Number: […]
A copy of the 1727 edition is currently in the collection of thhe Cornish Wrestling Association (CWA). This is core material for the DWS. We have an authoritative edition of Cornish Wrestling manual known as “Progymnastmata: In-play or the Cornish hug wrestler”, published in 4 editions of Sir Thomas Parkyns’ original work (1713, 1714, 1727, […]
TOMBSTONE IN MARY TAVY CHURCHYARD The following may be worth preserving in the Western Antiquary it is copied from a tombstone not in situ but stand ing on its edge by the side of the wall of the church at Mary Tavy The church having been restored the prob ability is that this stone was […]
Har. How did you divert yourself ? Tim. Oh, we ha’ pastimes enow there :—we ha? bull-baiting, and cock-fighting, and fishing, and hunting, and hurling, and wrestling. Har. The two last are sports for which that country is very remarkable in those, 1 presume, you are very expert. 8 Tim, Nan! What? Har. 1 say […]
John Prowse, who had now taken me under his protection, was a good specimen of the North Devon peasant; lively and intelligent, stout and muscular, nearly six feet high, and with shoulders that would not have disgraced Hercules. Besides this, he was upright as a dart, a grace he had acquired by having been some […]
The athletic exercise to which these people are mostly addicted is that of wrestling. This is pursued with great fervour and emulation by the young farmers and peasantry in the country It is common on these occasions for a purse of six eight or ten guineas to be made by gentlemen fond of promoting this […]
Sixty years ago this curious West-country ditty was sung not only from the Tamar to the Land’s End, but from Barnstaple Bay to the Rame Head. It describes, in rough and ready rhyme, the experiences of a country yokel who was carried off by a press-gang from a wrestling match on Maker Heights, near Plymouth. […]
Page 608 EXMOUTH WRESTLING. Rosalind. —— Shall we see this wrestling, coz? Le Beau. You must, if you stay here, for here is the place appointed for the wrestling, and they are ready to perform it. As You Like It. Page 609-611 [The first part describes a Londoner’s life and the author’s visit to Exmouth […]
An illustration by Thomas Rowlandson (London 1756-1827) ‘A Cornish wrestling match’ – bears indistinct inscription (lower centre), pen and ink and watercolour on paper laid down on card 18.2 x 30.6cm (7 3/16 x 12 1/16in). Sold at Bonhams for £1,062.50 inc. premium: 26 July 2017, 10:00 BST, London, Knightsbridge Available online: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/24193/lot/552/thomas-rowlandson-london-1756-1827-a-cornish-wrestling-match/
An indirect reference to Devon Wrestling in reference to shin injuries and conditions of disease (not caused by Wrestling, but by other ailments): Now in Devonshire especially, a habit prevails of kicking shins in wrestling. In this gymnastic exercise, two men collar each other, and kick each other’s legs; whosoever throws his opponent first on […]