Public Domain
Our neighbours on the other side of the English Channel have been accused of calling us a "nation of shopkeepers." No doubt the definition is not bad; and, so long as the goods supplied bear the hall-mark of British integrity, there is nothing to be ashamed of in the appellati...
Single-stick is to the sabre what the foil is to the rapier, and while foil-play is the science of using the point only, sabre-play is the science of using a weapon, which has b...
3. Chapter 3In the early stages of the world's history our very remote ancestors were unacquainted with the art of forging instruments and weapons from metals; they were not even aware of t...
6. Chapter 6One remembers reading somewhere, I think in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," of a certain "grievous crab-tree cudgel," and the impression left by this description is that the weap...
5. Chapter 5History tells us that firearms of sorts were in existence as far back as the fourteenth century, and that they were probably of Flemish origin. Certain it is that, prior to 1500...
2. Chapter 2According to Chambers's "Encyclopædia," the quarter-staff was "formerly a favourite weapon with the English for hand-to-hand encounters." It was "a stout pole of heavy wood, abo...
1. Chapter 1Our neighbours on the other side of the English Channel have been accused of calling us a "nation of shopkeepers." No doubt the definition is not bad; and, so long as the goods...