Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini, sic fortis Etruria crevit Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma.

Running and jumping are so natural and so easy to the young, that in one sense it may be said they no lore have a history than laughing or weeping. As long as there have been men on the earth it may be asserted that there have been running matches; and in every warlike nation feats of strength, speed, and endurance of the body have excited admiration. With but few nations, however, have athletic exercises formed an art and become a feature of national life; and where this has been the case there is a history, and an interesting history, of the practice of feats of strength and speed. To write such a history of English athletic sport is no easy task; for, as far as this writer is aware, it has never been seriously attempted before. The learned Strutt, whose work is such a mine of wealth to sporting antiquarians, contents himself with informing his readers that 'it is needless to assert the antiquity of foot-racing, because it will readily occur to everyone that occasions continually present themselves which call forth the exertions of running. . . . Originally, perhaps, foot-races had no other incitement than emulation, or at best the prospect of a small reward, but in process of time the rewards were magnified, and contests of this kind were instituted as public amusements - the ground marked out and judges appointed to decide upon the fairness of the race and to bestow the reward.' Such an a priori method of writing history will hardly account satisfactorily for the present form of athletic sport in England. The only other writer, as far as we are aware, who has attempted to explain the origin of English athletics to modern readers has given an excellent essay upon Greek athletics, and has then assured us that 'in one respect our position is like that of the Romans. Athletics are not indigenous with us.' It is our object in the present chapter to show with what success we can that competitions in running, jumping, and hurling of heavy weights are not only indigenous to the land, but have been one of the chief characteristics of both town and country life in England as far back as chronicles will reach; and that athletic sports, though they have had their days of waxing and waning, have always been a feature of life in 'Merrie England.'

Harry VIII. throwing the hammer.

It is difficult to obtain much information of the sports of the people in the middle ages as distinguished from the sports of the nobles. Just as the Roman historian expresses his opinion that the ancient Greeks were no better than the ancient Romans, the latter only suffering from the lack of eloquent chroniclers, so it is probable that the populace produced as good runners as Henry V. and his Court; but in the days of chivalry the bards only chronicled the feats of persons of quality. The monarch in question 'was so swift a runner that he and two of his lords, without bow or other engine, would take a wild buck in a large park.' Long before his time we know that the youth of London had their summer as well as their winter sports. FitzStephen, the monk of Canterbury, born in London, writes in the reign of Henry II. that the young Londoners had open spaces allotted to them near the City, where they practised, amongst other exercises, 'leaping, wrestling, casting of the stone, and playing with the ball.' No mention is made of running, but we can hardly imagine that leaping matches would be known and not running matches.

FitzStephen is no mean observer of sport, and his description of 'sliding' on the ice in winter is almost as minute as that of Dickens in 'Pickwick.' The knightly youths, however, were taught to run, jump, and wrestle in the days of chivalry, as well as the citizens; but this was, of course, chiefly as a military training, the feats by which they earned the greatest glory, as well as the smiles of the fair, being performed on horseback, as befitted persons of equestrian rank. In the romance quoted by Strutt, called 'The Knight of the Swan,' a certain duchess, Ydain by name, brought up her sons in ' all maner of good operacyons, vertues and maners: and when in their adolescence they were somewhat comen to the age of strength they were taught to runne, to just, and to wrestle.' Again, in the poem entitled 'Knyghthode and Batayle,' written early in the fifteenth century, we find:

In rennynge the exercise is good also To smyte, first in fight and also whenne To take a place our foemen will forerenne.

And for to lepe a dike is also good,

For mightily what man may renne and lepe

May well devict and safe 'is party kepe.

In another romance also quoted by Strutt, that of 'The Three Kings' Sons,' it is said of a certain knight, 'The king for to assaie him made justes and turnies, and no man did so well as he in runnyng, playing at the pame, shotyng, and cast-yng of the barre, ne found he his maister.'

The running and weight-putting, to which the townsmen of London were so much addicted, were not always favoured by the kings of England, who were afraid that the practice of archery might fall into disuse; and we find Edward III. especially prohibiting weight-putting by statute; but the statute, although never repealed, appears to have been more honoured in the breach than in the observance, for at the time of the decline of chivalry 'casting of the barre' was still a common pursuit. Henry VIII. certainly in one respect chose his amusements better than some of his predecessors; while Edward II. found his favourite amusement in 'cross and pile' (or, as it is now known, ' pitch and toss'), the much-married monarch, in his early days, was greatly devoted to this 'casting of the barre.' Even after his accession to the throne, his daily amusements embraced weight-putting, dancing, tilting, leaping, and running. The example of a monarch has, it is well known, a most persuasive effect, and hence it is not astonishing to find from a contemporary writer (Wilson) that all active sports, both on horseback and on foot, including leaping, running, and bar-throwing, became fashionable amusements.