The Association team has been uniformly more successful than Rugby; the following remarks of the editor on the subject of Rugby football appear to point to a possible explanation:—
“A most important item in football is ‘stodge.’ I have actually seen a fellow come out of the canteen to play a match—a match, mind you—with his mouth full of jam, or some mess or other. He wonders, after a time, why he is a bit off colour; thinks it’s the weather, or his boots. Mind, no stodge till the game is over.”
One might adopt the language of the sinister Custom House officer in “The Smuggler’s Leap”:—
“Your words are plain, though they’re somewhat rough!”
The marvel is that boys so frequently play a good game at “forward,” or make a long score at cricket, in spite of “stodge,” and that of the most wind-destroying character: they are, presumably, specially constructed in the interior at that age.
At Christmas, 1897, it is reported that Mrs. Curzon-Howe, the captain’s wife, presented a couple and a half of beagles to the pack, which then amounted to 17½ couples, with some puppies coming on. The beagles started a fox on one occasion, and ran it for nearly two hours. The distance is stated to have been fourteen miles; there is no mention of the number of “footmen” who kept with the hounds, but it must have been rather hot for them.
A new feature in 1897 was the introduction of hockey matches: Cadet Captains v. Ship; Officers v. Ship; Britannia v. Hindostan.
There is an assault-at-arms twice in the year—in July and December; the summer meeting is held in the fields, and great enthusiasm prevails.
Competitions take place at the horizontal bar, parallel bars, and other gymnastics, properly so called, including the “human pyramid”; a display with dumb bells; poles, etc.; and contests with gloves and fencing swords, which, of course, are by far the most popular, both with cadets and spectators.
The boys get a good grounding in the essential points of fencing and boxing, but to attain to any great degree of proficiency in either requires a good deal more time than can conveniently be devoted to it, and the boxing frequently has a strong spice of the “hammer and tongs” business about it. Still, there are some who shape very well; and, at any rate, a few systematic lessons will enable a lad to do something more than assume, like Mr. Pickwick, “a paralytic attitude,” which his friends confidently believed to be intended for a posture of defence.