CHAPTER XII.

WRESTLING: Its History and present Practice -- this Exercise, formerly so general, now confined to a few Counties -- Cornwall and Devon, Lancashire, Cumberland and Westmoreland -- these Counties possessing Practices peculiar to themselves -- Grand Annual Wrestling in Clerkenwell, formerly attended by the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London -- Curious Anecdote of a Minister of the Society of Friends of that day -- West of England and Westmoreland and Cumberland Clubs in London -- Attempt of Sir Thomas Parkyn to establish Wrestling in Nottinghamshire -- Cornish Wrestling -- Fuller’s Opinion of it -- Account of it by an Eye-witness -- Champions of Cornwall and Devon -- Games established at St. Ives in Cornwall by John Knill -- the Canns of Dartmoor, and Widdicombs of the Moors -- Description of a Match at the Eagle Tavern Green, City Road, in 1826, between Devon and Cornwall 531