ds and received
seven--in the latter, gave eight and received six. The Wiltshire men
went to Trowbridge in Somersetshire, the appointed place of meeting,
attended by some of the leading gentry of Wiltshire, and the gentleman
who was appointed by them to preside, bore public testimony to the
liberal and kind treatment his countrymen experienced.

"Any person who has seen the farce of Hob in the Well, performed, will
remember to have seen a specimen of this kind of prize fighting, for
which as well as wrestling, the people of Somersetshire have for ages
been renowned. In Scotland they excel at the backsword--the Irish too
are admirable hands--but neither have the temper of the English;
"Oppression makes a wise man mad;" what should it do then with a poor
peasantry? The tempers of the English have not had that to irritate
them. We will close this subject with a letter from an intelligent
Londoner, who was travelling through Hampshire.

"Passing, sometime since, through Rapley Dean, Hants, my attention being
attracted by a crowd of rustics on a little green near the road I turned
my horse thither, and arrived in the time when a lame elderly man, who I
afterwards found was the knight marshal of the field, from the middle of
a ring made by ropes, proclaimed, that "a hat worth one guinea was to be
played for at backsword; the breaker of most heads to bear away the hat
and honour," and inviting the youth there to contend for it. A little
after, a young fellow threw his hat into the ring and followed, when the
lame umpire called out "a challenge," and proceeded to equip the
challenger for the game. His coat and waiscoat were taken off, his left
hand tied by a handkerchief to his left thigh, and a stick, with basket
hilt, put into his hand; he then walked round the ring till a second hat
was thrown in, and the umpire called out, "the challenge is answered."

"As soon as prepared, the knights met, measured weapons, shook hands,
walked once round, turned and began the contest. In about a minute, the
umpire called out "About," when they dropped the points of their weapons
and walked round, and this calling I observed, was repeated as often as
the umpire judged either distressed. After some twenty minutes play,
some blood trickled down the challenger's head; the umpire called
"Blood;" and declared the other to have won a head.

"When both left the ring another hat was thrown in, and the challenge
again accepted, and played off i