t to be a dangerous gap between the
shoulder and the bottom of the helmet.

One last word: if you see that the point of your stick is broken, don't
go on playing; stop at once. A split ash-plant is as dangerous as a
buttonless foil, and just as likely as not to go through the meshes of a
mask, and blind where you only meant to score. As the chief fault of
single-stick as a training for the use of the sabre is that the stick
does not properly represent the weight of the weapon which it simulates,
it is not a bad thing to accustom yourself to using the heaviest sticks
in the gymnasium. This will strengthen your wrist, and when in a
competition you get hold of a light ash-plant, you will be all the
quicker for your practice with a heavier stick.

A cut on p. 57 by Mr. Graham Simpson represents the way to acknowledge a
hit, and a cut by the same artist on p. 61 illustrates, as far as we
know it, the less careful method of our forefathers. The use of the
elbow to shield the head, though common in the contests on the village
greens, was in its way no doubt more foolish than our pads; for though a
sturdy yokel might take a severe blow from a cudgel on his bare arm,
without wincing, the toughest arm in England would have had no chance
against a sabre.

[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Old style.]

POSITION.

Having now secured the necessary implements, let us begin to learn how
to use them. First, as to the stick, which, you will remember,
represents for the present a sabre, and consequently a weapon of which
one edge only is sharpened. In order that every blow dealt with the
stick should be dealt with what represents the sharp or "true" edge of
the sword, it is only necessary to see that you get a proper grip of
your weapon in the first instance. To do this shut your fingers round
the hilt, and straighten your thumb along the back of the hilt, thus
bringing your middle knuckles (or second joints of your fingers) and the
true edge into the same line. If you keep this grip you may rest
assured that every blow you deal will be with the edge.

And now as to position--the first position from which every attack,
feint, or guard, begins. Ned Donelly, the great boxer, used to tell his
pupils that if a man knew how to use his feet, his hands would take care
of themselves. And what is undoubtedly true in boxing is equally true in
fencing. "Look that your foundations are sure" should be every fighting
man's motto. Take trouble, then, ab