Hackwood, Old English Sports (1907)

Chapter XIII Wrestling

Wrestling had become one of the least practised of our old English sports, till the recent revival of the art as a music-hall “turn” — a use for which it was particularly well adapted, inasmuch as a Wrestling Match never fails to hold the interest of the spectator from first to last by its sustained excitement, which is often of a nervestraining intensity.

The importation of scientific Ju-jitsu from Japan may also have had something to do with the new-born interest now manifested in the art. But as an unscientific exercise Wrestling has been practised by the least civilised of nations from the very earliest of times ; and as is well known, it made a very considerable figure among the old Olympic games.

In England the inhabitants of Devon and Cornwall have from time immemorial been celebrated for their expertness in the pastime. ”The Cornish,” says old gossip Fuller, ”are masters of the art of wrestling, so that if the Olympian games were now in fashion, they would (page 189) come away with the victory. Their hug is a cunning close with their fellow-combatants, the fruits whereof is their fair fall, or foil at the least.” To give a Cornish hug is a proverbial expression. Another old writer [Carew, Survey of Cornwall] on Cornwall says of this characteristic sport : —

“The beholders then cast or form themselves into a ring, in the empty space whereof the two champions set forth, stripped into their dublets and hosen, and untrussed, that they may so the better command the use of their lymnes ; and first shaking hands in token of friendship, they fall presently to the effect of anger : for each striveth how to take hold of the other with the best advantage, and to beare his adverse party downe : wherein, whosoever overthroweth his mate, in such sort, as that either his backe, or the one shoulder, and contrary heele do touch the ground, is accounted to give the fall. If he be only endangered, and makes a narrow escape, it is called a foyle.”

Concerning the rules of the game the same writer adds —  “This pastime also hath his laws, for instance ; of taking hold above the girdle — wearing a girdle to take hold by — playing three pulls for trial of the mastery, the fall-giver to be exempted from playing again with the taker, but bound to answer his successor.”

The citizens of London in past times have been expert wrestlers, and there are records of some famous contests among them. In the reign of Henry III. there was a great match between them and the inhabitants of Westminster, held in St. Giles’s Fields, at which the Londoners proved victorious. At the return match held shortly after in Westminster a riot broke out through the overbearing attitude assumed by the Bailiff of that city, and the tumult could not be quelled for several days. Stow informs us of a similar outbreak against the Lord Mayor of London, during a wrestling match held at Clerkenwell in 1453. The excitement engendered by Wrestling is evidently of a contagious nature.

(Page 190) The common form of prize given at these old Wrestling Matches, seems to have been a ram. Thus writes Chaucer in the “Rhyme of Sir Thopas” : —

“Of wrastling was there none his pere Where any Ram shulde stonde.”

— and again in another passage he says of a miller —

“… for over al there he cam At wrastling he wode have away the Ram.”

Other animals were sometimes offered as prizes ; as a Cock, a Bull, or a Horse. Thus an old ballad of Robin Hood finding himself in the West Country runs to this effect : —

“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 of gloves, a red gold ringe,

A pipe of wine, good faye. What man bereth him best, ywis,

The prize shall bear away.”

Coming down to much later times, we find it a practice in some parts for the squire of the parish to give a hogshead of ale every year, to encourage the meeting of all local wrestlers, and offering as the prize ^^a good beaver hat, as a recompence to him who gives the most falls.”

The decay of the martial and more spirited exercises, like Archery and Wrestling, said to have set in from the (page 191) want of places proper for these purposes rather than any lack of inclination on the part of the people — and this points to the wrongful enclosure of village greens and the appropriation of common-lands — was followed by the pursuit of such amusements and ^^gamings” as could be cultivated at inns, taverns, and common drinking-houses. Stow, in his ” Survey of London,” complains bitterly that ^^ running is turned into royot” and ^^our bowes into bowls ” ; from which it has been inferred that in national popularity Archery was succeeded by the game of Bowls.

In the history of Wrestling mention can never be omitted of the eccentric Sir Thomas Parkyns, Baronet, of Bunny Park, Notts, who died in 1741, and was the author of a curious work entitled, ^^The Inn Play, or Cornish Hugg Wrestler.” Nor was he a mere writer on Wrestling ; he was an able and skilful athlete himself, as well as being a ripe scholar and an energetic justice of the peace.

He was educated at Westminster School under the famous Dr. Busby, where it is said his attention was first directed to Wrestling by having to translate a wellknown epigram from Martial, a portion of which he rendered thus : —

” I study next, rouse my poetic vein ; My body then anoint, and gently strain With some meet exercise ; exult in mind At every turn, myself both free to find From crimes and debts ; last, I bathe, sup, laugh, drink, Jest, sing, rest, and, on all that passes, think.”

Afterwards, as a student at Gray’s Inn, we find him relieving the dry study of the law by taking lessons in Wrestling, Fencing, and Boxing from the best masters the Metropolis could produce.

(page 192) Settling on his ancestral estate early in life, and while the vigour of youth was still fresh and buoyant within his robust frame, he established an annual wrestling match in his park, open to all comers. The prize was a gold-laced hat of the value of a guinea ; but if the reward was small the glory was great, for Wrestling was then a popular sport.

Sir Thomas was no idle patron of these meetings ; he never objected to try a fall with the best man on the ground, and on more than one occasion won and wore the prize hat himself. All his servants were selected for their well-set-up frames, strength, and muscularity ; and especially for their approved ability as wrestlers. His favourite footman and coachman, for example, had defeated the baronet in the wrestling ring, throwing him on his back in such a consummate style that, like the generous Robin Hood of old, he immediately took them into his service.

This method of selection was no mere whim — it was sound policy ; for he knew, as well as any man could, that a good wrestler was bound to be a sober man.

“Whoever would be a complete wrestler,” wrote Sir Thomas, “must avoid being overtaken in drink, which very much enervates ; ” besides putting a man in a passion, and bereaving him of his senses. Very quaintly does he continue this argument, contending that Bacchus is among the greatest of wrestling masters, having in his school many assistants like Brandy the Frenchman, and Usquebaugh the Irishman, whose great trick is to ” teach mostly the trip, which I assure you is no safe and sound play.”

In describing the antiquity of Wrestling, he alludes to the episode of Jacob’s encounter recorded in Genesis, and slily advises his readers to avoid wrestling with angels in the night ; for though the struggle may be maintained till (page 193) break of day, ” yet they will have the fall, and be out of joint with Jacob’s thigh.”

A good specimen of Sir Thomas’s style is found in the following directions for giving an opponent the throw known by adepts as ” the flying horse ” : —

“Take him by the right hand with your left, your palm being upwards as if you designed only to shake him by the hand in a friendly manner in the beginning ; and twist it outwards, and lift it upwards to make way for your head, and put your head under his right arm-pit, and hold his hand down to your left side, hold your head stiff backwards, to hold him out of his strength ; then put your right arm up to the shoulder between his grainings, and let your hand appear behind past his breech ; but if you suspect they will cavil at that arm, as a breeching, lay your arm along his belly, and lift him up as high as your head and in either hold, when so high lean backward, and throw him over your head.”

Which instructions were doubtless found very effective — when they could be carried out — by the practitioner.

On his monument in Bunny Church Sir Thomas Parkyns is depicted in his wrestling dress, potent and postured, ready for either “flying horse” or “Cornish hug.” His attitude is the first position in Wrestling, and symbolises “the divine and human struggle for the glorious mastery.” The moral is further enforced by some Latin verses which have been Englished to commence thus : —

“At length, by conquering Time subdued, Lo ! here Britannia’s wrestler lies ; Till now, he still unshaken stood.

Whene’er he strove, and gain’d the prize.”

This athletic worthy had never experienced a day’s illness “till Death gave him the backfall” in his seventyeighth year. The Wrestling Matches he instituted were kept up till about 1810.

(page 194) A description of a Wrestling Match held in 1826 between a Devon man and a representative of Cornwall, on the Green of the Eagle Tavern, City Road, London, discloses the differences in style affected by these two neighbouring shires.

The Devonian was a chubby-faced farmer, all life and activity, holding himself erect, and offering to his opponent in the ring every advantage. His name was Abraham Cann.

The Cornishman, named Warren, was sallow and sharp-featured, all caution and resistance, bending his body in such a way that his legs were inaccessible to his opponent ; he waited for the critical instant when he could spring in upon his impatient adversary.

Cann was extremely muscular and of line athletic proportions ; he stood with legs apart, having a hold like a vice, and strength to pinion with ease the arms of any adversary he could come to grips with.

Warren was a miner, and also possessed amazing strength, though it was not so well distributed throughout his frame.

Cann led off by putting out his hand as quietly as if he were going to seize a shy horse ; Warren threw off his touch with all the impetuosity of a surprised horse. But there was no escaping Cann’s pinch, and when they came to grips he had tripped his opponent in a trice, using his toe in a scientific but ineffectual manner ; for though he threw his man clean to the ground, it was not on his back, as required.

In the second bout Warren stooped and crouched more than ever to keep his legs out of Cann’s reach, who punished him for it by several kicks below the knee, which would have told more severely if his shoes had been on, according to his county’s fashion.

After shaking each other rudely, straining knee to (page 195) knee and forcing each other’s shoulder down, neither could gain any advantage so long as they but held by the arm and breast-collar, as ordinary wrestlers do. But presently they closed, their legs intertwined, Warren having Cann’s back pressed to his breast-bone and lifted from the ground. To pitch him down with his back squarely on the ground required more prowess than he possessed ; for when at last the attempt was made, it was Warren who was seen sprawling flat on his back, while Cann, whom he had been forced to liberate to save himself, had been thrown a few yards off on all fours.

The dispute over this fall, which should have been a victory for Cann, eventuated in the appointment of a new referee, the first one having declared that Warren had touched ground with one shoulder only.

Strange to record, the next and final bout proved to be an exact counterpart of the disputed fall. Warren made the same move, only lifting his antagonist higher. Cann turned himself precisely as before, but using a much greater effort, apparently put to it by his opponent’s marvellous 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 end he was seen uppermost, still coiled round his supine adversary, who this time admitted the fall, and, starting up, offered his hand to the victor. It was a termination honourably accepted as satisfactory to both sides.

Hackwood, F. W (1907); Old English Sports. London: T. F. Unwin. Available online via Archive.org.