Lane. Yet it argues your courage, much like your military pastime of throwing at cocks, since you have long allowed these two valiant exercises in the streets.”
An evidence of its old popularity in Ireland is that the statutes of Galway in 1527 forbade every other sport save archery, excepting “onely the great foot balle.” In the time of Charles II. football was popular at Cambridge, particularly at Magdalene College, as is evidenced by the following extract from the register book of that institution under the date 1679:—
“That no schollers give or receive at any time any treat or collation upon account of ye football play, on or about Michaelmas Day, further than Colledge beere or ale in ye open halle to quench their thirsts. And particularly that that most vile custom of drinking and spending money—Sophisters and Freshmen together—upon ye account of making or not making a speech at that football time be utterly left off and extinguished.”
It nevertheless remained for the most part a game for the masses, and never took root, except in educational institutions, among the upper classes until the 19th century. No clubs or code of rules had been formed, and the sole aim seems to have been to drive the ball through the opposing side’s goal by fair means or foul. So rough did the game become that James I. forbade the heir apparent to play it, and describes the exercise in his Basilikon Doron as “meeter for laming than making able the users thereof.” Both sexes and all ages seem to have taken part in it on Shrove Tuesday; shutters had to be put up and houses closed in order to prevent damage; and it is not to be wondered that the game fell into bad repute. Accidents, sometimes fatal, occurred; and Shrove Tuesday “football-day” gradually died out about 1830, though a relic of the custom still remained in a few places. For some thirty years football was only practised at the great English public schools, many of which possessed special games, which in practically all cases arose from the nature of the individual ground. Thus the rough, open game, with its charging, tackling and throwing, which were features of football when it was taken up by the great public schools, would have been extremely dangerous if played in the flagged and walled courts of some schools, as, for example, the old Charterhouse. Hence at such institutions the dribbling style of play, in which Mr Montague Shearman (Football, in the “Badminton Library”) sees the origin of the Association game, came into existence. Only at Rugby (later at some other schools), which from the first possessed an extensive grass field, was the old game preserved and developed, including even its roughness, for actual “hacking” (i.e. intentional kicking of an opponent’s legs) was not expressly abolished at Rugby until 1877. The description of the old school game at Rugby contained in Tom Brown’s School Days has become classic.
1. Rugby Union.—We have seen that from early times a rudimentary game of football had been a popular form of sport in many parts of Great Britain, and that in the old-established schools football had been a regular game among the boys. In different schools there arose various developments of the original game; or rather, what, at first, must have been a somewhat rough form of horse-play with a ball began to take shape as a definite game, with a definite object and definite rules. Rugby school had developed such a game, and from football played according to Rugby rules has arisen Rugby football. It was about the middle of the 19th century that football—up till that time a regular game only among schoolboys—took its place as a regular sport among men. To begin with, men who had played the game as schoolboys formed clubs to enable them to continue playing their favourite school game, and others were induced to join them; while in other cases, clubs were formed by men who had not had the experience of playing the game at school, but who had the energy and the will to follow the example of those who had had this experience. In this way football was established as a regular game, no longer confined to schoolboys. When football was thus first started, the game was little developed or organized. Rules were very few, and often there was great doubt as to what the rules were. But, almost from the first, clubs were formed to play football according to Rugby rules—that is, according to the rules of the game as played at Rugby school. But even the Rugby rules of that date were few and vague, and indeed almost unintelligible to those who had not been at Rugby school. Still, the fact that play was according to Rugby rules produced a certain uniformity; but it was not till the establishment of the English Union, and the commencement of international matches, that a really definite code of rules was drawn up.
It is an interesting question to ask why it was that the game of Rugby school became so popular in preference to the games of other schools, such as Eton, Winchester or Harrow. It was probably very largely due to the reputation and success of Rugby school under Dr Arnold, and this also led most probably to its adoption by other schools; for in 1860 many schools besides Rugby played football according to Rugby rules. The rapidity with which the game spread after the middle of the 19th century was remarkable. The Blackheath club, the senior club of the London district, was established in 1860, and Richmond, its great rival, shortly afterwards. Before 1870, football clubs had been started in Lancashire and Yorkshire; indeed the Sheffield football club dates back to 1855. Likewise, in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Rugby football clubs had been formed before 1870, and by that date the game had been implanted both in Ireland and South Wales; while in Scotland, before 1860, football had taken a hold. Thus by 1870 the game had been established throughout the United Kingdom, and in many districts had been regularly played for a number of years. Rapid as, in some ways, had been the spread of the game between the years 1850 and 1870, it was as nothing to what happened in the following twenty years; for by 1890 Rugby football, together with Association football, had become the great winter amusement of the people, and roused universal interest; while to-day on any fine Saturday afternoon in winter there are tens of thousands of people playing football, while those who watch the game can be counted by the hundred thousand. The causes that led to this great increase in the game and interest taken in it were, undoubtedly, the establishment of the various national Unions and the international matches; and, of course, the local rivalry of various clubs, together with cup or other competitions prevalent in certain districts, was a leading factor. The establishment of the English Union led to a codification of the rules without which development was impossible.
In the year 1871 the English Rugby Union was founded in London. This Union was an association of some clubs and schools which joined together and appointed a committee and officials to draw up a code of rules of the game. From this beginning the English Rugby Union has become the governing body of Rugby football in England, and has been joined by practically all the Rugby clubs in England, and deals with all matters connected with Rugby football, notably the choosing of the international teams. In 1873 the Scottish Football Union was founded in Edinburgh on the same lines, and with the same objects, while in 1880 the Welsh Football Union, and in 1881 the Irish Rugby Football Union, were established as the national Unions of Wales and Ireland, though in both countries there had been previously Unions not thoroughly representative of the country. All these Unions became the chief governing body within their own country, and one of their functions was to make the rules and laws of the game; but as this had been done to start with by the English Union, the others adopted the English rules, with amendments to them from time to time. This state of affairs had one element of weakness—viz. that since all the Unions made their own rules, if ever a dispute should arise between any of them, a dead-lock was almost certain to ensue. Such a dispute did occur in 1884 between the English and Scottish Unions. This dispute eventually turned on the question of the right of the English Union to make and interpret the rules of the game, and to be the paramount authority in the game, and superior to the other Unions. Scotland, Ireland and Wales resisted this claim, and finally, in 1889, Lord Kingsburgh and Major Marindin were appointed as a commission to settle the dispute. The result was the establishment of the International Board, which consists of representatives from each Union—six from England, two from each of the others—whose duties were to settle any
