THE HACKING GAME 65 



of the opponents was first on his side, and also hack over 

 anyone running with the ball if you could not tackle him. 

 Often and often it was a really savage game, and the sound 

 of the haoking when a scrummage was formed was rather 

 dreadful as one remembers it now. Moreover, anything 

 in the nature of a guard for the shins was anathema 

 maranatha. I remember seeing a boy very severely 

 beaten for being found to have stuffed copy-books inside 

 his stockings when he played football. 



Under such conditions the initiation into Rugby 

 football was something like being under fire for the first 

 time, and yet I was put in our school Twenty, presumably 

 because I was bigger than others of my age. Moreover 

 the first game I ever played in was a very fierce one indeed, 

 against a Twenty of the Big School Town fellows. I did 

 not really understand the game, and what to make of the 

 hacking was a demoralising puzzle. I was told I had 

 played very badly, and it was not obscurely suggested that 

 I had funked the hacking, which was probably true ; 

 but it was a very different matter when one really knew 

 what it all meant and what a dreadful thing it was to be 

 thought afraid. Then fear, which is an instinct natural 

 to every human being, was quickly got under and my 

 second match was played in reputable fashion, as may 

 be judged from the following letter, in which, be it observed, 

 I make no mention of how badly I played in the first : 



OAKFIELD, Oct. 23^ 1864. 

 DEAR POLLY, 



We played the Big School Town last week. They 

 were very big fellows and beat us. But yesterday we played 

 Vecqu eray's, which is one of the Preparatory Schools, and beat 

 them easily, getting 24 quarter ways, 4 punts out, 4 tries at goal, 

 and i goal, to their 3 quarter ways and one try at goal. I got a 

 piece about f of an inch long taken right out of my leg. 



The fellow who did it must have had nails in his boots, which are 

 not allowed. I never felt it till after the match. I shall not be 

 able to play again for a bit, but I got cheered and clapped, so I 

 did not care. 



Believe me, yours affect. 



W. ALLISON. 



