14 OLD VILLAGE JOKES AND GAMES. 



CUT-LEG. 



The game of '' cut-leg " was played with hazel rods about 

 the size of one's finger and a yard long. With these the com- 

 l. ; it. -nits slashed each others' legs below the knees ; no blows 

 were allowed above the knee, and the man who could stand it 

 the longest won the game. Old Wm. Loder told me that in 

 his younger days he used to cut rods for " the players " and 

 whilst the combat was on he used to stand " wi' a bundle under 

 me yarm " and hand out fresh rods to the combatants as they 

 required them. Loder stated that a man that could use both 

 hands alike had a great advantage at this game, as with his 

 right hand he could damage his opponent's left leg and then 

 change over and attack his right leg. The combatants were 

 usually dressed in knee breeches and old-fashioned light blue 

 and white stockings, and Loder told me that he had seen the 

 knee breeches of George and Joe Warren, who were great 

 fighters, " bust open " below the knee from the swelling caused 

 by the blows. 



I believe that cut-leg was also played at the Lenthay race 

 meetings at Sherborne, but only as a secondary game. 



" WROSTLEN." 



In Devonshire the corresponding amusement seems to have 

 been " Wrostlen Matches ;" but true wrestling had nothing to 

 do with the game. The procedure was as follows : The com- 

 batants were dressed in knee-breeches and stockings, and boots 

 with thick soles ; but no nails were allowed in them. Each 

 " player " then placed his hands on his opponent's shoulders 

 and got a grip, and they then proceeded to kick each other's 

 shins as hard as they could, and the man who stood it longest 

 won the game. A former foreman on the Sherborne Castle 

 estate, a Devonshire man, had been a great player at this 

 game, and was proud to show his scarred shins in evidence of 

 his prowess, and my late brother once saw it " played " at an 

 Inn at a village near Okehampton. This would have been 

 about the year 1870. The landlord of that Inn was a great 



