66 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



From a letter written during the same month as the 

 above I quote the following extract : 



I saw Big Side football yesterday in the Close. It was the 

 Caps of the school against the Sixth. The Caps are about 70 of 

 the best players in the school, and are so called from the velvet 

 caps that they wear. One fellow got his arm put out, and a 

 great many were hurt. I wish you could see a football match, 

 It is worth looking at. 



How strange it seems now that in the days when the 

 above letter was written Rugby football was practically 

 unknown, except at Rugby, and that public interest in 

 football of any sort was non-existent ! The Big School 

 players used to seem as demi-gods in our eyes at that 

 time, and certainly a Big Side Football Match, such as 

 that of the Vlth against the School, was always some- 

 thing in the nature of a Homeric battle. Everyone in 

 the Vlth could play, whether he had his Cap or not, and 

 it was the one occasion in the year when the School was 

 free to pay off any old scores that might exist. Any 

 number of old " Rugs " could come down and play on 

 one side or the other, according to the position they had 

 been in when they left the school. But of Rugby football 

 as it then was I shall have more to say later on. It is 

 only introduced here as it appeared to my wondering eyes 

 when I first saw it played, and, as touching its tempera- 

 mental effects on me when I first played it. That 

 I soon came really to like the game is shown by a 

 letter written on 7th May the following year (1865), hi 

 which comes this statement : 



We have a good deal of cricket now, but I don't think I like it 

 so well as football. 



We had Caps of sorts in our small way at Oakfield 

 House, and there is a curious reference to this in one 

 of my letters, written also in May, 1865 : 



You are quite in a mistake thinking by " louts " I meant our 

 school. I meant the common street boys, of whom there are 



