IT may seem strange that I should be asked to turn aside from the studies and occupations which have so closely engaged my time during the last twenty years, to write a few lines upon a subject in which, during that period, and for years before, I have taken the greatest interest, namely, athletics; and yet it is not altogether unfitting, inasmuch as I am probably as well qualified as any to speak from personal experience of the advantages which are gained in a sedentary life from the power of practising active exercises. Except cycling and lawn-tennis, both of which have been practically invented during the last fifteen years, no pursuit has seen so great an advance or revival as athletic sports. It may be, and it probably is, the case (as those who read the pages of this book will learn), that for a great many years prior to the year 1850 athletic sports had been from time to time pursued by both amateurs and professionals, who had with more or less assiduity, according to the particular ability or powers of the competitor, performed before the public; there had been, no doubt, remarkable instances of individual men who possibly had been as great at running, walking, jumping, and swimming as those who have excelled in modern times; but it is perfectly certain that prior to the date last mentioned - I mean the year 1850 - athletics were not practised as a recognised system of muscular education, nor was there any authentic record of individual performances.

I doubt, moreover, whether either times or distances were taken and measured with sufficient accuracy to make the earlier records in any way trustworthy.

A steeplechase.

Speaking of our Universities, I have seen the foundation of the present prosperous clubs at both Cambridge and Oxford, and, with the exception of the Crick-run at Rugby and the steeplechase at Eton, prior to 1850 no public school had any established athletic contest. I do not, however, propose in the few lines which I intend to pen to attempt any history of athletic sports; the following pages will, I am sure, contain records attractive both to the athlete and the public, of those who, in years gone by and down to the present time, have excelled on the road, the turf, and the running-path. I wish for a few moments to regard the subject from the point of view of the consideration of the advantages to be gained in the practice of athletics, and, secondly, to make a few suggestions as to the best mode in which these advantages may be increased so as to be of still greater utility and benefit.

We are brought face to face in England, and other populous countries, with the difficult problem which is called into existence by over-population, and the utter absence of space and opportunity for the youth of the present day to find sufficient scope for his energies. The tendency to crowd into the curriculum of both school and college a large and ever-increasing number of subjects has rendered the strain of education far heavier than in times gone by, and this tension will certainly increase.

In old days, when a fair grounding in Greek and Latin, or a moderate knowledge in mathematics, was a sufficient preparation for almost any profession (the brilliant few being left to excel in those subjects by the sheer force of their natural abilities), the culture of the body and the simultaneous development of physical and mental strength were of less importance, or at any rate their value was less recognised. I need scarcely remind those who read these pages that, thirty years ago, it was the exception for a senior wrangler or a senior classic to figure in the University boat or the eleven. The names of those few who did excel stand out among their contemporaries, and it was by no means an uncommon experience to find that those who had surpassed in intellectual contests in school and college utterly broke down in their professions in after life. I attribute this in no small degree to the fact that for many boys and men there was scarcely any inducement to develop or use their physical strength, nothing which led them to those pursuits which, without engrossing the mind too much, develop the body gradually and contemporaneously with mental growth.

How many a first class man at Oxford, or wrangler or first class classic at Cambridge, could only find exercise in the daily and monotonous grind of an hour or an hour and a halfs walk; cricket and boating both taking up too much time, and not unfrequently leading many to expenses which they could ill afford?

I maintain that one great good which has arisen from the stimulus given from the years 1860 to 1870 to athletic sports is the facility which those pursuits afford for the development of physical strength, and the inducement to active exercise offered to men who, either from want of inclination or want of means, would otherwise never have taken any. I have known intimately a great many reading men,who have told me how deeply they regretted that there was nothing of the kind in their time, and many others have assured me of the advantages which they have derived from the interest which these pursuits have given to them, and the inducement to take exercises which otherwise they would have wholly neglected. It must not be forgotten that more genuine exercise can be got in a shorter space of time from running than probably from any other pursuit, except boxing and gymnastics, with the great advantage of the former over the two latter that the exercise is taken in the open air.

There is, moreover, the great interest which attaches to the contests in other colleges, universities, and clubs, affording an object of attraction at times when it is not necessary for men themselves to compete, and bringing together men who otherwise would remain unknown to one another, whereby acquaintanceships and friendships are formed which are of the greatest value. A very distinguished judge who joined the Inns of Court rifle corps in the earliest days of its existence told me that he much regretted that there was no rifle corps when he was called to the bar, as he was satisfied that many young men reading for the bar were by such means brought into contact with older members of the profession, whom under ordinary circumstances they would have had no opportunity of meeting.