g spots" about a mile and a-half apart, and playing a match
lasting four or five hours! Could any of our young men nowadays stand
such rough-and-tumble work? Happily it is not required. It has been
found that a match lasting an hour and a-half, with the ball ever and
anon passing in front of one on a level field, is quite enough, even for
the strongest back, half-back, or forward. Experience has sufficiently
proved that, even in this age of scientific play. So much for the past,
and I will proceed to touch briefly on the spread and popularity of
football.

To those who only know football as promoted by the Queen's Park, and
subsequently by the Vale of Leven, Clydesdale, Granville (now defunct),
3rd L.R.V, and lastly, though not leastly, by the Scottish Football
Association, we are almost compelled to offer some information. A
quarter of a century ago a Union was formed in Edinburgh to draw up a
code of rules to encourage the game of Football, and matches were played
between schools and other clubs. These rules were a combination of the
present Association and Rugby, dribbling being largely indulged in, but
the goal-posts were similar to those now in use under the latter code of
rules, and a goal could not be scored unless the ball went over the
posts. This game made considerable progress in Edinburgh, being
vigorously promoted by scholastic clubs and students attending college.
Some years later, when the number of young gentlemen sent over from
England to be educated in Scotland, particularly Edinburgh, began to
increase, these old rules were subjected to considerable alteration, and
eventually assimilated to those of the English Rugby Union, and all the
known clubs in Scotland at that time adhered tenaciously to these rules,
and under them many exciting games were played between Eastern and
Western clubs, the Glasgow Academicals and Edinburgh Academicals being
the leading ones. Eventually, however, the new clubs springing into
existence in the Western District of the country did not care to play
these rules, and, following the example of similar clubs in England,
adhered to what they considered an improvement on the old system of
Football, and joined the English Football Association, formed in 1863.
The first to do this was the Queen's Park, the mother of Association
Football in Scotland, in 1867, and the example was soon followed by the
Clydesdale, 3rd L.R.V., Vale of Leven, Granville, and others, a few
years afterwar