Read Ebook: Pedestrianism; or An Account of the Performances of Celebrated Pedestrians During the Last and Present Century. With a full narrative of Captain Barclay's public and private matches; and an essay on training. by Thom Walter

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 445 lines and 90677 words, and 9 pages

On the Gymnastic Exercises of the Ancients, 9

Modern Pedestrianism, 33

The same subject continued, 69

Capt. Barclay's Public and Private Matches, 101

Sketches of Capt. Barclay's Favourite Pursuits, and General Mode of Living, 205

On Training, 221

On the Physical Powers of Man, 249

Genealogy of the Family of Barclay of Mathers and Ury, in the County of Kincardine, 257

ERRATA.

Page 113. line 20. instead of 12 read 2 seconds. And correct the same error, p. 158.

Transcriber's Note: These errata have been corrected.

PEDESTRIANISM.

ON THE GYMNASTIC EXERCISES OF THE ANCIENTS.

Gymnastic exercises were held in the highest repute by the most illustrious nations of antiquity. They mingled with the sacred and political institutions of their governments, and produced consequences affecting the physical and moral character of the people.

The GAMES interested all Greece; and the period of their celebration was that of peace and security. The different republics, with their dependent colonies in the isles, in Asia, and Africa, furnished candidates emulous to gain the distinguished honors. Hostile states, then uniting in bonds of friendship, interchanged those favourable impressions which tend to humanize the rough nature of man; and that asperity of temper, or animosity of heart, so characteristic of rude nations, was thus softened or lulled.

The SACRED GAMES of the Greeks, were composed of the exhibitions of the STADIUM and HIPPODROME; and the charms of poetry and music were added, to gratify the more refined taste of the lovers of these exquisite arts. Philosophers, poets, historians, orators, and every description of people, assembled to witness the exertions of the combatants, and to enjoy the varied pleasures of the festival.

The OLYMPIC games claimed precedency over all others; and to IPHITUS, king of ELIS, they owe their revival--for their origin is lost in the obscurity of remote ages. The Eleans obtained the direction and management, by the united consent of Greece; and their territory, on this account, was deemed inviolable. They founded their prosperity on the cultivation of peace; and, on sacred ground, raised a temple dedicated to Jupiter, which inclosed them within the pale of its protecting influence.

"The temple," "stands in the Pisaean division, little less than three hundred stadia distant from ELIS. Before it is a grove of wild olives, within which lies the OLYMPIC stadium." The temple was magnificent. It was built of beautiful marble, in the Doric order, and surrounded by a colonade. It was ornamented by the finest productions of art--the genius of the sculptor and painter having adorned the sacred edifice. But the STADIUM was no more than a terrace of earth, the area of which was six hundred and thirty-eight feet in length. On the one side was erected the seat of the HELLANODICS, or judges; and on the other, an altar of white marble, upon which the priestess of CERES, and her virgins, had the privilege of viewing the games. At the farther extremity was the barrier, where those who contended in the SIMPLE FOOT-RACE began their course; and there also was situated the tomb of ENDYMION.

The STADIUM was appropriated to the exhibition of those games denominated GYMNASTIC; and they consisted of five different exercises, viz.

The FOOT-RACE was the most ancient, and claimed a pre-eminence over the other sports; the Olympiads being distinguished by the name of the victor who obtained the prize in this game.--But as our subject is particularly connected with this branch of the ancient gymnastics, we shall treat it more fully in the sequel.

LEAPING consisted in projecting the body by a sudden spring, in which the competitors endeavoured to surpass each other in the length of their leap. Their bodies were poised and impelled forwards by weights of lead suspended in their hands; and it is said, that PHAULUS of Cretona acquired such proficiency in this exercise as to leap fifty-two feet.

WRESTLING.--This art required both strength and agility. The wrestlers were matched by lot; and the prize belonged to him who had thrice thrown his adversary on the ground. They rubbed their bodies with oil to elude the grasp, and to prevent too profuse perspiration.

THROWING THE DISCUS.--This sport consisted in throwing a globular mass of iron, brass, or stone, under the hand, in the manner of the English quoit. It tried the strength of the arms; and the length of the cast decided the claims of the competitors.

Judges called HELLANODICS were appointed to preside at the Olympic festival; and their office conveyed great authority. They inflicted corporal punishments and pecuniary penalties on those who infringed the Olympic laws: and that vast assembly of combatants and spectators, which was composed of men of every rank and degree, was thus kept in order and regularity. For ten centuries, religion and custom consecrated their powerful influence to the maintenance of the sacred games--the period of their revival by Iphitus, being seven hundred and seventy-six years before the birth of Christ. The duration of this institution shews its perfect organization, and that, while it comprized so many different states, its laws were administered with justice and impartiality.

The games were celebrated every fifth year; and the candidates for the Olympic crown, termed ATHLETAE, were obliged, previously, to enter their names, that they might be known to the Hellanodics, and their pretensions to the honor of competition investigated. Ten months of preparatory training were requisite; of which one was devoted to exercise in the stadium in the presence of the judges, in order to qualify the competitor for the arduous trial; and FREE citizens only, whose characters were irreproachable, and who, in other respects, had complied with the rules of the institution, were permitted to contend. So important was the prize of victory, that none but men of spotless reputation were allowed to enter the lists, which were carefully guarded against the intrusion of unworthy or improper persons.

The games lasted five days, and commenced with the FOOT-RACE, which was the first in order, and the highest in estimation of all the gymnastic exercises.

At first, the race, as instituted by Iphitus, was SIMPLE. It consisted of running once from the barrier to the goal, or from the one extremity of the stadium to the other. But in the fourteenth Olympiad, the DIAULUS was introduced, which, as the word implies, was double the former distance. The runners in this race turned round the goal, and finished their course at the barrier, whence they had started. In the next Olympiad, the DOLICHUS, or LONG COURSE, was added, which consisted of six, twelve, or twenty-four stadia, or in doubling the goal three, six, or twelve times.

In the simple foot-race, fleetness or agility only was required; but in the long course, strength of body, and command of WIND, were indispensable to enable the candidate to gain the prize. Strength and agility are seldom united in the same person; yet there are some modern examples of the union of both; and, in antiquity, LEONIDAS of RHODES obtained the triple crown, in four Olympiads, and was thus distinguished in the list of conquerors by twelve victories.

The competitors in the gymnastic exercises contended naked; but in the sixty-fifth Olympiad, the race of ARMED MEN was introduced, as particularly applicable to the duties of war: and, according to Pausanias, lib. v. twenty-five brass bucklers were kept in a temple at Olympia for the purpose of equipping the candidates, who wore also helmets and bucklers. DAMARETUS gained the first victory in this race, which in no respect differed from the stadium, or simple foot-race, but that the Athletae were covered with armour.

While the runners waited the sound of the trumpet as the signal to start, they exercised themselves by various feats of agility, and short experimental excursions.

"They try, they rouse their speed with various arts, "Their languid limbs they prompt to act their parts, "And with bent hams, amid the practis'd crowd, "They sit; now strain their lungs, and shout aloud; "Now a short flight, with fiery steps they trace, "And with a sudden stop abridge the mimic race."

When the signal was given, the racers ran with amazing rapidity. They "seemed on feathered feet to fly," and the first who arrived at the goal was declared the victor.

So highly were gymnastics estimated in Greece, that the most liberal rewards, and the most flattering honors, were bestowed on the victors, whose glory shed a lustre around their friends, their parents, and their country.

The Olympic crown was composed of the branches of the wild olive; but the pine, the parsley, and the laurel, were the symbols appropriated to the several solemnities of the sacred games at the Isthmus, Nemea, and Delphi. This reward, however, was only a pledge of the many honors, immunities, and privileges, consequent of the glory of being crowned. To excite the emulation of the competitors, these crowns were laid on a tripod which was placed in the middle of the stadium, where also were exposed branches of PALM, which the conquerors received at the same time, to carry in their hands, as emblems of their invincible vigour of body and mind.

The ceremony of investing the victors with this distinguished prize, was attended with great solemnity. The conquerors were called by proclamation to the tribunal of the Hellanodics, where the HERALD placed a crown of olive upon the head of each of them, and gave into his hand a branch of the palm. Thus adorned with the trophies of victory, they were led along the stadium preceded by trumpets; and the herald proclaimed with a loud voice, their own names, and those of their fathers, and country; and specified the particular exercise in which each of them had gained the victory.

Although the Hellanodics could bestow no other reward than the OLIVE CHAPLET, which was merely a symbol, yet the shouts of applause from the spectators, and the congratulations of relatives, friends, and assembled countrymen, formed a meed that gratified the ambition of the conquerors. Sacrifices were made in honor of the victors, and entertainments were given, in which they presided, or were otherwise eminently distinguished. In the PRYTANEUM, or town-hall of Olympia, a banqueting-room was set apart for the special purpose of entertaining them; and odes composed for the occasion were sung by a CHORUS, accompanied with instrumental music.

There can be nothing more gratifying to laudable ambition, than the idea that great actions shall be handed down to posterity. To perpetuate, therefore, the glory of these victories, the names of the conquerors were recorded in a public register, which specified the exercise in which each had excelled: and the privilege of erecting their statues in the SACRED GROVE OF JUPITER, was the last and highest honor which the Hellanodics could grant to the Olympic victors.

But upon arriving in their native cities, the conquerors were far more distinguished than at Olympia; and more substantial rewards were conferred upon them. They enjoyed the honor of a triumphal entry; and temples and altars, dedicated to them, were erected at the public expense. They were thus immortalized by what was deemed the perfection of glory. "To conquer at Olympia," says Cicero, "was greater and more glorious than to receive the honors of a Roman triumph."

The importance which the Greeks attached to the Olympic games may be deduced from the care with which they instructed their youth in the gymnastic exercises. There was scarcely a town of any consideration in Greece, or in her colonies settled along the coasts of Asia and Africa--in the Ionian and AEgean islands--in Sicily and in Italy, in which there was not a GYMNASIUM, or school of exercise, maintained at the public expense.

The GYMNASIA were spacious buildings, of a square or oblong form, surrounded on the outside with piazzas, and containing in the inside, a large area where the exercises were performed. Places for training in bad weather--porticoes, baths, chambers for oil and sand, with groves of trees, and seats, or benches, encompassed the stadium. The internal structure of these edifices was adapted to the convenience of those who frequented them, either for exercise or for pleasure; and they were the resort of rhetoricians, philosophers, and men of learning, who here read their lectures, held their disputations, and recited their several productions.

The moral and political influence of the Olympic games was acknowledged by the legislators of Greece; and accordingly, they were encouraged and protected by laws so strict, that for more than ten centuries they attracted the particular attention of the civilized world; and, amidst the revolutions of states and empires, they seemed to stand on a basis of perpetual duration. To gain the Olympic crown was the great object of solicitude, as it reflected the highest honor, not on the individual alone who obtained the prize, but also on the country which gave him birth. But to qualify the candidate for the combat, a long course of training was requisite; and in every city, the youth were instructed in the different branches of the gymnastic science, and regularly exercised by proper masters.

The republics of Greece were warlike in their constitution; and they were eager to form the bodies, as well as the minds of their youth. The importance of the athletic exercises was apparent to those who understood the nature of the human frame, which, from experience, they knew could be strengthened by the practice of the gymnasium, at the same time that the mind was invigorated by consequent health and soundness in the body. We may therefore consider the sacred games of Greece rather as a military institution, than a religious festival; and that the worship of the gods, although combined with the sports of the STADIUM and HIPPODROME, was only a secondary object, calculated to impress on the minds of the people a higher idea of their value and importance. In the ancient world, as well as in modern times, religion has been made a tool to promote state artifices; and the legislators of Greece knew too well the influence of superstition, to reject its powerful aid in the construction of their political establishments.

As a civil and military institution, the sacred games were attended by the happiest consequences. They presented a prize to the emulous youth, accompanied by such honors as powerfully stimulated their endeavours to acquire that proficiency in the gymnastic sports, which could only be obtained by frequent practice in the schools of their respective cities. The Athenians devoted nearly a third part of the year to such amusements; and from the number of Olympic victors whose national designations are recorded by ancient writers, we may suppose, that the other states of Greece were no less zealous in the exercises of the gymnasium.

The Grecian manner of fighting required both strength and agility, as the long spear of the "firm phalanx" could not be easily wielded, and the occasionally rapid marches of the Greek armies over a rugged country, sufficiently evince the utility of active habits. To the PRACTICE of the gymnasia, the Greeks owe all the glory they acquired in war; and it was the opinion of Plato, "that every well constituted republic ought, by offering prizes to the conquerors, to encourage all such exercises as tend to increase the strength and agility of the body."

The admirable symmetry of the Grecian statues, establishes, beyond controversy, the just proportions and great beauty of their prototypes; and to the education of their youth, we must ascribe the fine forms of the Greek people, who, by avoiding idleness and dissipation, and by mingling exercise with amusement, created, as it were, an improved race of men. In a moral point of view, then, the gymnastics of the ancients were of the utmost importance. They furnished occupation to all those who were not engaged in laborious employments, or in the service of the state;--who were exempted from the drudgery of business by their affluent condition; and, indeed, to every man who had a vacant hour to devote to amusement or exercise. The gymnasia may be termed schools for morality, as they contributed to diminish vice, and to increase virtue: they served the double purpose of strengthening the good, and weakening the bad, propensities of human nature.

They who aimed at eminence in the gymnastic exercises were compelled to observe temperance and sobriety, which greatly promoted the health and vigour of the body. Every thing enervating was forbidden; and the pleasures of the table, or sensual indulgence of any kind, rendered the Athletae unfit for the severe exercise of the gymnasia. HORACE remarks, that,

In a voluptuous climate, the propensity to vicious indulgence is natural and powerful; but among the Greeks, it was counteracted by the firm organization which they acquired by perpetual exercise; and the universality of the games diffused among the whole people the important advantages of the institution.

Corporeal excellence, however, was not the only benefit which the Greeks derived from the Athletic exercises. The powers of the mind were also strengthened and augmented, and that courage which depends on the nerves was improved to the highest pitch. The undaunted spirit of the Greeks appalled their enemies; and the most signal exploits in the field of battle were performed by those who had previously obtained the Olympic crown. The love of glory is the greatest incentive to splendid actions; and the SACRED GAMES fostered a passion that could easily be transferred from the gymnasia to the contests in the field. One Grecian could conquer ten Persians, for his body was robust, and his mind was brave; and HONOR was the sole reward which he courted.

It is related by Herodotus, that when Xerxes invaded Greece, he found the Grecians employed in celebrating the Olympic festival, and that the prize which they contended for, was no more than--A CHAPLET OF WILD OLIVE. TIGRANES, the son of ARTABANUS, exclaimed, "Alas, Mardonius! against what kind of men have you led us to fight! men who engage in a contest with each other, not for gold and silver, but only for a superiority of virtue and glory!"

The physical, political, and moral influence of the gymnastic exercises on the bodies and minds of the Greeks, was thus evinced by their superior beauty and strength--their strict observance of the laws of their country--their bravery in war--and by their temperance, sobriety, and industry, in civil life.

Of all the Olympic games, the FOOT-RACE, as we have previously remarked, held the foremost rank. Homer distinguishes Achilles by the epithet "swift of foot;" and, whether as conducive to health, useful in the affairs of life, or important in the operations of war, pedestrian exercises must be considered as of the utmost consequence to mankind. The human frame is peculiarly calculated for activity and exertion; and it should be remembered, that it is by EXERCISE and LABOUR that man is enabled to preserve his health, increase his strength, improve the faculties of his mind, and procure his subsistence.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet