t it was the national love of hard knocks which made this little
island famous, and I for one do not want to be thought any better than
the old folk of England's fighting days.

There is just enough pain about the use of the sticks to make
self-control during the use of them a necessity; just enough danger to a
sensitive hide to make the game thoroughly English, for no game which
puts a strain upon the player's strength and agility only, and none on
his nerve, endurance, and temper, should take rank with the best of our
national pastimes.

Gallant Lindsey Gordon knew the people he was writing for when he
wrote--

"No game was ever yet worth a rap,
For a rational man to play,
Into which no accident, no mishap,
Could possibly find its way."

Still, there comes a time, alas! in the lives of all of us, when, though
the hand is still ready to smite, the over-worked brain resents the
infliction of too many "merry cross-counters," and we cannot afford to
go about with black eyes, except as an occasional indulgence. Then it is
that single-stick comes in. Boxing is the game of youth, and fencing
with foils, we have been assured, improves as men fall into the sere and
yellow leaf. Single-stick, then, may be looked upon as a gentle
exercise, suitable for early middle age.

There is just enough sting in the ash-plant's kiss, when it catches you
on the softer parts of your thigh, your funny bone, or your wrist, to
keep you wide awake, and remind you of the good old rule of "grin and
bear it;" but the ash-plant leaves no marks which are likely to offend
the eyes of squeamish clients or female relations.

Another advantage which single-stick possesses is that you may learn to
play fairly well even if you take it up as late in life as at five and
twenty; whereas I understand that, though many of my fencing friends
were introduced to the foil almost as soon as to the corrective birch,
and though their heads are now growing grey, they still consider
themselves mere tyros in their art.

That single-stick is a national game of very considerable antiquity, and
at one time in great repute on our country greens, no one is likely to
deny, nor have I time to argue with them even if I would in this little
_brochure_. Those who are interested in spadroon, back-sword, and
broad-sword will find the subjects very exhaustively treated in such
admirable works as Mr. Egerton Castle's "Schools and Masters of Fence."
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