Wrestling and Wrestlers: Biographical Sketches of Celebrated Athletes of the Northern Ring; to Which is Added Notes on Bull and Badger BaitingRobinson, Jacob
History
Wrestling and Wrestlers: Biographical Sketches of Celebrated Athletes of the Northern Ring; to Which is Added Notes on Bull and Badger Baiting
Robinson, Jacob
Wrestlers; Wrestling
An anecdote illustrative of his fearless courage and successful resistance
to apparently overwhelming odds, must not be forgotten. In the year 1829,
his uncle sold a cow to a butcher in Carlisle, named Roberts, we believe.
The payment for it not being forthcoming at the proper time, nor any
prospect of it, Weightman was despatched to recover the amount owing, and
rode to Carlisle on a brown filly for that purpose. Coming up with Roberts
on Eden bridges--in company with another butcher and a
confederate--Weightman told him he wanted "owther the coo back with him, or
the brass to pay for it." The only reply to this question was the filly
being struck so forcibly with a thick stick, that it was nearly "fell'd" to
the ground with the stroke. Boiling with indignation at this treatment,
Weightman cried out: "If ye strike the beast ageàn, I'll strike ye doon!"
Again the filly was struck, and the fray began in earnest. Leaping off his
horse, Weightman seized the two butchers, taking one in each arm, and
"clash't the'r heids togidder till bleùd flew aboot like onything!" Their
confederate also joined the fray in a skirmishing mode of attack, and
although it was now three against one, they were rapidly getting the worst
of it. Seeing the tide thus turning against them, one of the rascals
resorted to the knife, and inflicted a great gash on Weightman's hand, the
mark of which he bore to his dying day. An onlooker, who interfered on
Weightman's behalf, was immediately knocked down, under the wheels of a
cart, and severely injured. Things becoming thus desperate, several
bystanders stepped forward at this stage of the affray, and put an end to
the dastardly attack.
Although Weightman possessed no lack of courage when it was called into
action by such an event as the foregoing, he was, nevertheless, often very
diffident and reserved in the affairs of everyday life. "I's nobbut
shy--I's nobbut varra shy, an' divvent like to ax onybody," was a phrase
frequently on his lips, when any trivial favour had to be solicited.
At one time of his life, his company was a good deal sought after by 'Torny
Armstrong, and two neighbouring 'statesmen, named Bleaymire and Jordan.
"Sec chaps," said he, in regretful tones,--"sec wild divvels as thur, aye
wantit a feùl; an' I sarra't for yen langer than I sud ha' deùn." After his
wrestling days were over, Weightman continued his irregular habits and mode
of life, and as age crept on he was by times reduced to considerable
straits in order to make both ends meet. Hard-fisted poverty, and the
pressure of circumstances in various ways, not unfrequently forced his
simple Cumbrian speech to shape itself into proverbial phrases, which
sometimes lingered in the memories of those who heard them for weeks and
months after. Take the following as examples: "Fwok sud aye be menseful,
an' menseful amang fwok." And again: "Jwohn Barleycworn's ruin't mony a gud
heart, an' 'ill ruin mony mair yet."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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