24 
Lo the. Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
< soe age of chivalry is gone,” but the 
age of back-sword, boxing, &c.&e. 
is not. Surely if we must have sports, 
the sports of chivalry are preferable, far 
preferable, to those. 
I did not expeet to see an adyocate 
for “ back-sword or single-stick playing,” 
in your Magazine for June last, page 
416. Whatever may be I. B.’s opinion 
ef the game in question, it is looked 
upon here, by the soberand rational part 
of the county at least, as altogether be- 
neath the employment of rational beings, 
and fit only for American savages, to- 
whose sports it may, in all probability, 
bear a strong resemblance. Sir, I con- 
ceive there is, in these times, already too 
much disposition in the human mind to 
foster a martial spirit in Europe; and, 
whilst so able a wielder of the sceptre of 
blood rules the Continent, it is likely to 
continue; but the trae interests of man 
he not in the mutual destruction of his 
species, 
How back-sword may even be made 
subservient to the cause of war, must be 
left to abler hands to determine. I have 
-bowever heard it whispered, that our 
notorious boxers are not often courageous 
in the field of battle. Perhaps the dif- 
ficulty of accounting for this will not be 
great: in boxing, they fight merely for 
themselves; in the field of battle, for their 
country: and, as they are not in the 
same predicament, feel not the same 
ardour. May we not therefore apply 
the same argument to the back-sword- 
player. 
Back-sword is, I am afraid, too nearly 
ailied to bull-baiting, cock-fighting, and 
boxing. So far from encouraging these 
sports, it is certainly the duty of every 
lover of peace and good order, to dis- 
countenance them as much as possible; 
not perhaps by legislative enactments, 
but by turning the minds of the rising 
generation into more useful channels ; 
by diffusing more extensively the means 
of acquiring a sense of religious and 
moral obligation; by schools; and, last 
and best of all, by our own exainples. 
Ultimately, I think there can be no 
douot, but that single-stick playing, bull- 
baiting, cock-fighting, and the nunerous 
et cetera of American savaye sport, in- 
cluding even hunting, will give way toa 
closer application to the improvement of 
the human mind, and to a more extended 
humanity, not only to our fellow men, 
but to evéry species of the brute crea. 
1 
Back- sword Playing—Scenery of Little-Falls. [Aug. 1, 
tion.. The more clearly we see the 
means, the sooner we shall obtain the 
end, of acquiring all the happiness which 
is compatible with our existence here : 
we have natural evils sufficient to combat- 
with, without making for ourselves arti- 
ficial ones. * 
I-am happy to say*for this county, - 
(Somerset) that the sports above-men- 
tioned are by no means so common as 
they used to be; the mists aud fogs of 
ignorance must vanish before the sun of 
a bright and better day: 
Huntspill, James JENNINGS. 
July 10, 1810. 
P.S. I am much obliged to Mr. Glazebroole 
for an explanation of the term Canards tigrés : 
had I supposed it necessary, I might have 
mentioned Siberia as the country in- which 
they were said to be found. I, however, doubt 
whether the nas Famaicensis be the same. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
S you have frequently declared 
yourself desirous of information 
respecting the topography of distant 
countries, I send you some remarks on a 
part of our western scenery,which always 
excites the admiration of travellers. 
Little-falls is a village situated about 
eighty miles westward of Albany; the 
road by which you approach it on the’ 
eastern side, is made ata great expence, 
on the north part of the Mchawk._ On 
the right of it are stupendous highlands, 
which seem almost wholly composed of 
rocky strata. In two or three places 
they are piled almost perpendicularly, 
and their summits are crowned with 
trees of considerable size. A traveller, 
who like me is given to romancing, may. 
easily imagine them to be the massive 
walls of some Udolphian castle. The 
Opposite shore is in every respect simi- 
‘ar_to this, and the river is compressed 
between them to less.than half its usual 
breadth. 
A remarkable phenomenon has given 
this passage some adventitious sublimity. 
The rocks have been observed to be 
worn away like those under a cataract: 
some of them which are excavated, 
evidently from aqueous attrition, may 
be seen from the stage on the borders of 
the road. From this circumstance a 
belief has arisen, that the waters of the 
Mohawk were formerly arrested by these 
everlasting hills, forming a lake, which 
extended many miles westward, and thas 
at length they burst their barrier, and 
; rushed 
