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
Rowland Long of Ambleside, an immense big, burly man, the winner, it was
asserted, of nearly one hundred belts, issued a challenge, that he was open
to wrestle any man in England. An enthusiastic Cumbrian, named Thomas Bell,
residing at Goose Well, near Threlkeld, took up the challenge, not for
himself, but with the understanding that he should produce a man at the
appointed time and place. He first tried his neighbour, Tom Nicholson, but
Tom "thowt hissel rayder ower slender" to engage such a giant as Rowland,
and recommended William Richardson of Caldbeck. Bell set off, and after
some trouble and delay, fell in with Richardson at Rosley Hill fair, on
Whit-Monday. Without much ado the two agreed; got a conveyance, and drove
off for Ambleside without further preparation: a long course of training
never being thought of in those good old days. After reaching Ambleside,
they took a boat, and rowed down to Bowness, where sports were held on the
Tuesday. Richardson's name was entered for the wrestling, but being stiff
and tired with the long ride from Rosley, he didn't, according to his own
version of the affair, "git weel away wid his men." He succeeded, however,
in working upwards till the final fall, and then encountered John Long, a
brother of Rowland's. The two had a hard struggle for the prize, but in the
end the Caldbeck hero proved victorious. Whether John Long considered the
fall doubtful or unsatisfactory, cannot now be ascertained; but he said,
tauntingly, to Richardson, after the tussle was over, "If thoo can du nowte
neā better ner that, my man, thoo'll hev d--d lile chance wi' oor
Roan, I can tell thee!"
On Wednesday--the day following--the match with Rowland was appointed to
come off on the bowling green of the Salutation Hotel, Ambleside, for, we
believe, ten guineas a side, the best of three falls. Richardson, looking
from a window of the hotel, got a first sight of his huge opponent, coming
up the street. After an attentive survey, and noticing the awkward, heavy
sort of rolling walk that Long had, a smile stole over the features of the
Caldbeck man, who thought then he could win easily; setting it down in his
own mind, that one so slow and ungainly would not be quick enough in his
movements in the wrestling ring. This mental calculation proved correct;
the two first falls settling the match, and enabling the winner to walk
away with the amount contended for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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