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
At Carlisle, in 1812, when James Scott, the Canonbie man, won, we do not
find that Rowantree contended. No record is known to exist, giving the
names of those who entered for the prizes, and, therefore, nothing definite
can be stated.
The following extract from the _Carlisle Journal_, will show that the
prize--twenty guineas--given in 1813, was held to be something remarkable
in wrestling annals, and created a wide-spread sensation throughout the
north. At the present day, a considerably larger sum is given; but whether
this profuse liberality has improved the _morale_ of the ring, is a very
doubtful matter.
On Friday, the 8th of October, the great prize of
twenty guineas was wrestled for on the Swifts, in a
roped ring of seventy yards in diameter, in the
presence of the largest concourse of people we ever saw
on a similar occasion. Notwithstanding the day was
extremely wet during the whole of the contest, the
curiosity that had been excited through all ranks of
society, overcame every obstacle; and we were happy to
see on the ground the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis of
Queensberry, the Earl of Lonsdale, H. Fawcett, Esq.,
M.P., together with a large number of gentlemen from
all parts of the county, and from Scotland, to witness
one of the finest exhibitions of activity, muscle,
science, and resolution, ever seen in the north of
England. The wrestling was of the most superior kind;
many of the combatants having been struck by their
antagonists from the ground upwards of five feet.
Robert Rowantree, the Cumberland shepherd, gained the
first prize, having thrown the noted William Richardson
and George Dennison, in two of the severest struggles
we ever saw. We are happy to add that their peaceable
and civil deportment to each other has been the subject
of much commendation.
On the morning of the wrestling, Rowantree walked from Butterburn, a lone
farm-stead, north-east of Gilsland, and fully twenty miles from Carlisle,
as the crow flies; and then wrestled through an exceedingly strong ring--a
proof of lasting endurance and pluck seldom parallelled. Seventy-two men
entered the ring for the head prize; exactly twenty-four more than in the
previous year. In the first round, Rowantree threw Joseph Richardson; in
the second, James Gibson; in the third, Thomas Gillespie; in the fourth,
William Earl of Cumwhitton; in the fifth, George Dennison of Stainton; and
in the final fall, William Richardson of Caldbeck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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