merely intended for the tyro--they are, at best, a
compilation of those notes written during the last ten years in black
and white upon my epidermis by the ash-plants of Serjeants Waite and
Ottaway, and Corporal-Major Blackburn. Two of them, unfortunately, will
never handle a stick again, but the last-named is still left, and to him
especially I am indebted for anything which may be worth remembering in
these pages. A book may teach you the rudiments of any game, but it is
only face to face with a _better_ player than yourself that you will
ever make any real advance in any of the sciences of self-defence.

And here, then, is my first hint, taught by years of experience: If you
want to learn to play quickly, if you want to get the most out of your
lessons, whether in boxing or stick-play, never encourage your teacher
to spare you too much. If you get a stinging cross-counter early in your
career as a boxer, which lays you out senseless for thirty seconds, you
will find that future antagonists have the greatest possible difficulty
in getting home on that spot again. It is the same in single-stick. If
you are not spared too much, and are not too securely padded, you will,
after the ash-plant has curled once or twice round your thighs, acquire
a guard so instinctively accurate, so marvellously quick, that you will
yourself be delighted at your cheaply purchased dexterity. The old
English players used no pads and no masks, but, instead, took off their
coats, and put up their elbows to shield one side of their heads.

There are to-day in England several distinct schools of single-stick,
the English navy having, I believe, a school of its own; but all these
different schools are separated from one another merely by sets of
rules, directing, for the most part, where you may and where you may not
hit your adversary.

The best school appears to be that in which all hits are allowed, which
might be given by a rough in a street row, or a Soudanese running
a-muck. The old trial for teachers of fencing was not a bad test of real
excellence in the mastery of their weapon--a fight with three skilled
masters of fence (one at a time, of course), then three bouts with
valiant unskilled men, and then three bouts against three half-drunken
men. A man who could pass this test was a man whose sword could be
relied upon to keep his head, and this is what is wanted. All rules,
then, which provide artificial protection, as it were--protection