CHAPTER XL 



FOOTBALL AND ITS TRADITIONS 



It is a curious feature in the latter-day recrudescence of 

 games that the oldest games known in the records of 

 Great Britain are the two which have gained the greatest 

 and the most rapid popularity — golf and football. Foot- 

 ball not long ago was unknown outside the public schools 

 of England. But, being a fighting game — a veritable image 

 of war — it was bound to come to the front. And it has 

 done so with a vengeance. It is now, of course, a scientific 

 game ; but the essential features have not been lost, as one 

 may learn by glancing at the old traditions of football. 



The rough old Shrove-tide game was pursued with 

 great energy at Scone in Perthshire. The sides, married 

 and single, assembled at the village cross, at two in the 

 afternoon of " Pastern's E'en," as Shrove Tuesday is called 

 in Scotland, and the game by immemorial custom had to 

 last till sunset. It is thus described in Sir John Sinclair's 

 Statistical Account of Scotland: "The player who got the 

 ball ran with it till overtaken by the opposite party ; then, 

 if he could not shake himself free, he threw the ball from 

 him, unless it was wrested from him by some of the 

 other party ; but no one was allowed to kick it ! " Here 

 you have the Rugby game in embryo. The object of the 

 married men was to " hang it" — that is, put it three times 

 into a small hole on the moor, which was the dool, or limit, 

 on the one hand ; that of the bachelors was to " drown " 

 the ball, or to dip it three times into a deep place in the 

 river. If neither side succeeded in winning a goal, the ball 

 was cut into two equal parts at sunset. The roughness of 

 the game gave rise to a proverb, " All is fair at Ball of 

 Scone," Tradition said that the match was instituted 



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