1 68 Ikin0s of tbe 1Rob, IRifle, an& (Bun 



equal among his contemporaries. His great jump of 

 23 feet across the Cherwell, in the presence of many 

 spectators, remained unbeaten until Mr. C. B. Fry 

 eclipsed it six years ago. At the time he made that 

 famous jump, Wilson tells us he was 21 years of age, 

 5 feet 1 1 inches in height, and 1 1 stone in weight. With 

 the exception of Ireland, the professional, who, with 

 weights in his hand and leaping from a spring-board, is 

 credited with 29 feet, there was no one in the three 

 kingdoms who could approach Wilson as a jumper. 

 And later, in his essay on " Gymnastics," he offered to 

 wager " a hundred sovereigns to five against any man in 

 England doing 23 feet on a dead level with a run or a 

 leap on a slightly inclined plane, perhaps an inch to a 

 yard." It was a safe bet to make then and for sixty 

 years afterwards; but so greatly has athletic skill 

 developed since Wilson's time, especially during the last 

 decade, that it would be scarcely safe now to lay these 

 odds against the accomplishment of 25 feet, for the 

 record already stands at 24 feet /J inches. 



As a boxer Wilson was one of the best amateurs of 

 his day. No undergraduate of his time could take a 

 diploma in boxing unless Wilson had tried him and 

 awarded him a certificate of merit. On one occasion 

 a professional pugilist of some note obstructed Wilson's 

 passage across a bridge. " Will you fight me?" exclaimed 

 the angry undergraduate. "You'd better not try that 

 game on, mister. I'm Tom So-and-So." " I don't care 

 who you are ; come on." Then each put up his fists, and 

 at it they went. The professional was licked, and, as he 

 surlily gave in, said, "You must either be the devil 



