Egan, Cumberland and Westmoreland wrestling for a silver cup (1829)

On Good Friday, in 1829, the annual Wrestling and Leaping Matches for ten distinct prizes, raised by Subscription, and only allowed to be played for by natives of Cumberland and Westmoreland, took place at the Eyre Arms Tavern, St. John’s Wood, in the presence of an immense assemblage of spectators. The prizes consisted of a silver cup value £20, six silver snuff-boxes, two handsome gold seals, and a chased gold watch-key. On one side of the cup appeared the figures of two men wrestling, over which was the motto, “The labour itself is a pleasure.”

For the Wrestling prizes nearly two hundred candidates entered their names. After some of the finest play ever witnessed (in the style peculiar to the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland, which is widely different from the usual Cornish and Devonshire modes of wrestling), four prizes were adjudged as follows: The grand prize to Joseph Dobson, of Cubbom, Westmoreland. A silver snuff-box to Joseph Stamper, of Keswick, Cumberland. A plain silver snuff-box to Joseph Wells, also of Keswick. A silver box to William Robinson, of Highcomb, Westmoreland.

Source: Egan, P. (1836). Pierce Egan’s Book of Sports. T. Tegg, London.