the most rapid dexterity, while from the continued clatter of the weapons, a person at a distance might have supposed there were at least six persons engaged on each side.

"Long they fought equally, until the Miller began to lose temper ... not a frame of mind favourable to the noble game of quarterstaff, in which, as in ordinary cudgel-playing, the utmost coolness is requisite; and it gave Gurth, whose temper was steady though surly, the opportunity of acquiring a decided advantage.

"The Miller pressed furiously forward, dealing blows with either end of his staff alternately, and striving to come to half-staff distance; while Gurth defended himself against the attack, keeping his hands about a yard asunder, and covering himself by shifting his weapon with great celerity, so as to protect his head and body. "Thus did he maintain the defensive, making his eye, foot and hand keep true time, until observing his antagonist lose wind, he darted the staff at his face with his left hand; and as the Miller endeavoured to parry the thrust, he slid his right hand down to his left, and with the full swing of the weapon struck his opponent on the left side of the head, who instantly measured his length upon the greensward."

Than this passage from Sir Walter Scott, nothing could give a more entertaining or more enlightening description of Quarter-staff play.

In the same work of fiction, which is a veritable storehouse of information on the subject of old English sports, we read how the bold Robin Hood, on his first meeting with Little John, disdaining to take advantage of a comparatively unarmed man, laid down his bow, and unbuckling a stout oaken stick at his side, proceeded at once to settle their difference . . . which was the disputed passage of a plank bridge by a bout of quarter-staves. We are not to doubt that in the old fighting days, when men relied not so much upon the law as upon themselves for personal protection, that with this weapon of the humble the trusty staff with which the man of low degree habitually defended himself-there were performed as valiant feats of arms as ever were recorded by Froissart or sung by troubador.

But the display of a stout and pliant wrist must ever be at a marked disadvantage with an exhibition of strong and graceful horsemanship; nor can a stick cut from the hedge ever be expected to compare in attractiveness with the gleam of richly fabricated armour. Our indebtedness to Scott, therefore, for his vivid "prose" description, is practically immeasurable.

In Dryden's day, the staff was still carried upon the back, for he writes:

"His quarter-staff, which he could ne'er forsake,
Hung half before and half behind his back.”

Nowadays the sport is entirely unknown, having gone out of use many generations ago; nor, do we think, would it ever be likely to come into favour again, being rather too rough for the taste of the present day.

Somewhat analagous games to Quarter-staff are SINGLE-STICK and CUDGEL-PLAYING.

Single-stick Playing is so called to distinguish it from Cudgelling, in which two sticks are used, the Singlestick player having the left-hand tied down and using only one stick both to defend himself and strike his antagonist. The object of each gamester in this play, as in Cudgelling, is to guard himself, and to fetch blood from the other's head-whether by taking a little skin from his pericranium, drawing the crimson stream from his nose, or knocking out a few of his teeth.

In Cudgelling, as the name implies, the weapon of attack is a stout staff, or cudgel, and the player defends himself with another one, having a large hemisphere of basket-work upon it called the "pot."

"

Bacon speaks of the use of cudgels by the captains of the Roman armies. In the eighteenth century matches with cudgels were quite the vogue, and public subscrip

SINGLE STICK.

On guard.

SOMERSETSHIRE GAMESTERS.

[From an engraving by Scott. Published, 1810, by J. Wheble, Warwick Square.]

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tion lists were got up to provide prizes. "Chambers' Book of Days" mentions a cudgel match held at Shrivenham, in Berkshire, on April 30, 1748, the patrons of which included Lord Barrington and other members of the aristocracy, when the prize-money distributed amounted to a little over five pounds; the comment upon which is "We find nowadays Pugilists engage in a much more brutal and less scientific display for a far less sum."