ROBINSON, Jacob and GILPIN, Sydney. North Country Sports and Pastimes. Wrestling and Wrestlers: biographical sketches of celebrated athletes of the Northern ring; to which is added Notes on Bull and Badger Baiting. London Bemrose & Sons. Carlisle The Wordsworth Press. 1893.
8vo., in contemporary half red morocco by Fazakerley. lettered in gilt on spine, with original printed wrappers bound in. A little occasional browning, otherwise a very good copy.
First edition. This scarce volume provides brief histories of different types of wrestling from around the world, not only from the British Isles but also from Japan, Turkey, Greece and India. This is followed by biographical chapters on various northern wrestlers. Thereafter are two chapters are on Bull Baiting and Badgers and Badger Baiting. Both of these sports had been outlawed in the United Kingdom as early as 1835, with the Cruelty to Animals Act. There is a reproduction of a Bewickesque woodcut of badger baiting on p.234.
The final short chapter is an account by Thomas de Quincey of a "Midnight Chase of a bull by Professor Wilson".
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