“Then strip, lads, and to it, though sharp be the weather;
And if by mischance you should happen to fall,
There are worse things in life than a tumble on heather,
And life is itself but a game of football.”
It is perhaps scarcely necessary to quote the lines from the “Lay of the Last Minstrel,” of the same poet, when, in the truce between the English and Scottish armies, sports were indulged in:—
“Some drive the jolly bowl about;
With dice and draughts some chase the day;
And some, with many a merry shout,
In riot, revelry, and rout,
Pursue the football play.”