Cumberland Wrestling Champions. 71 



it has been continued ever since. Crow Park before 

 the time of Gray the poet was a grove of immense 

 oaks, and when the Greenwich Hospital Estate at 

 Keswick, of which it forms part, passed by purchase 

 to the Marshall family, the races and wrestling were 

 given up. 



Weightman was a very tall and good-looking man, 

 and won his falls by great power and length of arm, 

 which made up for his lack of science. George Irving, 

 who was 5ft. ioin., and nearly fourteen stone, seemed 

 quite small in the arms of such a lifeguard ; but 

 " Geordie" was a man of dauntless pluck, and did not 

 care whom he met. His final fall with the gigantic 

 McLauchlin — who was 6ft. 5in., and above twenty 

 stone — was always a disputed one, and furnished food 

 for discussion and edification in farm-kitchen ingles 

 for many a month. It seems that when they had " gat 

 hod," and were wrestling for the final fall, Irving 

 begged the giant " not to throw yourself on the top 

 of me," and McLauchlin, thinking that he was down 

 and the bout over, quitted his hold. Upon this Irving 

 nimbly lit on his legs again, and claimed the fall, and 

 after a great scene round the umpires the belt was 

 handed to him. His science was magnificent, and 

 he liked to have a very tight hold of his man, and 

 as a right-legged striker and a cross-buttocker with 

 the left leg he was supreme. This favourite chip of 

 his was as keenly watched for all round the ring as 

 Jemmy Little's buttock and Chapman's right leg hype. 



George Irving and Robinson of Renwick (a very 

 cunning wrestler) were much of the same build, and 

 two smarter fellows never entered the ring, but 

 " Geordie was still maister of him." J. Little from 

 Sebergham was a less and lighter man than Irving. 

 The latter had got rather slow and stale when they 

 met at Carlisle for the last fall in 1831. It was an 

 anxious moment for the backers of the old champion. 

 " Geordie " went in to do or die, and got his man up 



