Book of football

THE BOOK OF FOOTBALL
ABOUT ITS ORIGIN
I
Do
not pose as a football archivist. So the reader
who has an historical bent will have to search else-
where for prolixity in the matter of detail as to the
origin of the two games of Association and Rugby
football. A little history in a book of this kind is
nevertheless imperative, but the reader may embark
cheerfully upon this opening chapter with the know-
ledge that the author began it with the intention of
adhering strictly to the principles of that very sound
advice : " Cut the cackle and git to the 'osses."
That the Rugby game is the older of the two few
can question, though there is ample proof that Soccer
was played before William Webb Ellis " first took the
ball in his arm and ran with it, thus originating the
distinctive feature of the Rugby game,
A.D.
1823," as
the inscription on the famous mural tablet at Rugby
School has it. That inscription uses the words " with
a fine disregard for the rules of Football as played in
his time," but is it reasonable to suppose that the
London apprentices when engaged years before in
" footeballe " in the City never used their hands ?
The Rugby game was, they say, first played at Chester,
the head of a defeated Dane being the ball. I am
A
i