Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, &c./Part 3/Fighting "Up and Down"
UP AND DOWN FIGHTING.
Writing about 1832, Mr Baines, in his "Lancashire," says there is amongst the inhabitants of Bolton [and the neighbourhood] a mode of settling their quarrels by single combat that cannot be too strongly condemned. At almost every assize in Lancashire several individuals are tried for murder or manslaughter, arising out of battles, when, to the astonishment of strangers, evidence is given of parties mutually agreeing to fight "up and down," which includes the right of kicking—punching, or purring, as it is called in Lancashire—on every part of the body, in all possible situations, and of squeezing the throat, or "throttling," to the very verge of death. At races, fairs, and on other public occasions, contests of this nature are witnessed by crowds of persons who take part on each side with as much interest as is excited by the regular boxing-matches of the South. That death often occurs in such matches will not be thought extraordinary, especially when it is considered that clogs, or heavy wooden-soled shoes, covered with iron plates, and studded with large nails, are commonly worn in the districts where this barbarous custom prevails. To check these revolting contests, several of the judges, about seventy years ago, revived the almost obsolete punishment of burning in the hand, upon conviction of manslaughter arising from kicking. By an Act of the third year of George IV., cap. 38 [1822], that punishment is abolished; but the punishment of transportation for life, or for years, or imprisonment and hard labour not exceeding three years, is extended to this crime; and it is understood that the highest infliction will be resorted to, if necessary, for the purpose of putting an end to a practice which is a disgrace to a civilised country. Persons best acquainted with the habits and pastimes of the inhabitants say that the custom of up and down fighting, with purring, was less frequent amongst the forty thousand inhabitants of 1831 than it was amongst the fifteen thousand inhabitants of 1773; and they augur that, from the combined operation of the terrors of the law, the dissemination of religious instruction, and that spirit of civilisation which is slowly but perceptibly spreading through the district, it will shortly only be known as a matter of history.