94 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



Wrestling has always been the principal athletic exercise in the 

 north of England, particularly in Cumberland, where it is still prac- 

 tised perhaps more generally than in any other part of the kingdom. 

 " It is impossible," says the Professor, " to conceive the intense and 

 passionate interest taken by the whole northern population in this 

 most rural and muscular amusement. For weeks before the great 

 Carlisle annual contest nothing else is talked of on road, field, flood, 

 foot, or horseback ; we fear it is thought of even in church, which 

 we regret and condemn ; and in every little comfortable ' public ' 

 within a circle of thirty miles' diameter, the home-brewed quivers 

 in the glasses on the oaken tables to knuckles smiting the board, in 

 corroboration of the claims to the championship of a Grahame, a 

 Cass, a Laugklen, Solid Yaik, a Wilson, or a Wightman. A politi- 

 cal friend of ours, a stanch fellow, in passing through the Lakes 

 last autumn, heard of nothing but the contest for the county, which 

 he had understood would lie between Lord Lovvther (the sitting 

 member) and Mr. Brougham. But, to his sore perplexity, he heard 

 the names of new candidates, to him hitherto unknown ; and on 

 meeting us at that best of inns, ' White Lion,' Bowness, he told 

 us with a downcast and serious countenance that Lord Lowther 

 would be ousted, for that the struggle, as far as he could learn, 

 would ultimately be between Thomas Ford of Egremont, and 

 William Richardson of Caldbeck, men of no landed property, and 

 probably radicals !"* 



During my father's residence at Elleray, and long after he be- 

 came Professor, he steadily patronized this manly amusement, and 

 though, as the historian of the subject, Litt,f remarks, " he never 

 sported his figure in the ring," he was not without skill and prac- 

 tice in the art, being, as an old wrestler declared, " a varra bad un 

 to lick," which one can readily believe. He gave prizes and belts 

 for the Ambleside competitions, such as had never been offered 

 before, and the historian above mentioned describes in glowing 

 terms how much the success of the annual sports in the neighbor- 

 hood was owing to his liberal encouragement. In some of his let- 

 Beat, when a lady in the same pew moved up, wishing to speak to him. He kept edging cautiously 



away from her, till at last, as she came nearer, he hastily muttered out: "Sit yont, Miss , sit 



yont ! Dinna ye ken ma pouch is f u' o' gemm eggs !" 



* Blackwood, December, 1823. 



t Wrestliana; or, an Historical Account of Ancient and Modem Wrestling. By William 

 Litt. 12mo. Whitehaven. 



