Shakespeare's Ariel, as we have noticed, foreshadows the "intelligent vapour," and is considerably preferable to "Mary Jane." In Hamlet, we have a ghost of the true kind—a ghost who has a fearful mission of vengeance, which must be fulfilled before he can rest. So strong is our belief in the unerring instinct of genius, that we deem the question of spiritualism would be almost settled if we could discover what Shakespeare really thought about it. The ghost of Hamlet's father is a very earnest and serious ghost; and it would really seem as if the great poet believed that spirits might appear under special circumstances. Milton tells us that

"Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth

Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep."

Unseen yet, perhaps, not without power to become visible, if there is need. Coleridge used to say that a ghost was a shadow, and a shadow without a substance being impossible, there could be no ghosts. Yet it is recorded that he once saw his own doppelgauger-and what are we to think of the weird, mediaeval mesmerism of Christabel? There is, perhaps, no poem in the English language in which the imagination acts with such continuous power and consistency. The influence of Geraldine's

"shrunken serpent eyes" is brought before the reader so vividly that it seems like reality. How much or how little did the poet believe possible of what he so admirably describes ?

Among contemporary poets, Robert Browning has touched this subjectand with the touch of genius.

"At night, when doors are shut,

And the wood-worm picks,
And the death-watch ticks,
And the bar has a flag of smut,
And a cat's in the water-butt—

"And the socket floats and flares,

And the house-beams groan, And a foot unknown Is surmised on the garret-stairs, And the locks slip unawares."

There is great power in the picture which he paints of a mesmeric séance at that witching time-when the "surmised" foot creaks above you, and the sudden movements of the locks cause you to start. Even the dying miauling of the luckless cat that has fallen into the water-butt, adds horror to the scene. Any one of our readers who possesses strong powers of volition, should read Browning's poem, and then try if, by adopting the process which it describes, he can make his lady-love pay him an involuntary visit. If he succeeds, he is hereby requested to communicate the result to the Editor.

NEARLY forty years ago, a gentleman of the name of Litt, published a little volume about ancient and modern wrestling, which had the good fortune to attract the attention, and draw forth the warm and hearty praise of Christopher North. Mr. Litt was, himself, a practised wrestler, a fair scholar, a native of West Cumberland, and a thorough enthusiast on the subject of wrestling. He was not satisfied with proving that wrestling, as it is practised in Westmoreland and Cumberland, is a noble and exciting science; that it trains the muscles, and brings the body

almost to a state of physical perfection; but he also maintained that it has a high moral value, and no little of spiritual significance.

That the science of wrestling is ancient, of course everybody will admit who has heard of the famous tussle between Ajax and Ulysses; but Mr. Litt claimed for wrestling a higher regard than any which could be founded either on antiquity or utility. He maintains that it is noble, because it calls forth one of the noblest passions of man-the passion for conquest-and because it develops this passion in its least harmful

form. A wrestler is not like a pugilist, whose conquest is proclaimed by blackened eyes and a battered head; but he is a courageous, self-possess ed, quick-eyed, active, and powerfullimbed member of society, who has a sound mind in a sound body, who has a lofty ideal of right and wrong, and an instinctive love of fair play, who has a conscientious regard for the British constitution as it is, and a determination to maintain it intact at all hazards, coupled with the physical power to uphold this determination. The wrestling match between Hercules and Antæus, Mr. Litt scorns to cite, because it is just possible that it may have been fabulous; but he does not fail to point out the importance of the Olympian, Nemean, and other games, where prizes were awarded and contended for in the presence of a whole nation; and he takes care to warn modern nationalities of their folly in not following the example of their elders in this respect. Strong men, and not heavy purses, are a nation's safeguard. We are making our purses heavy, and are neglecting our physical strength, the result of which will be, that when our purses are sufficiently heavy to tempt the cupidity of the stranger, and when our bodies are sufficiently emaciated to render outrage and spoliation comparatively easy, we shall have the foreigner on our shores; and the laws of the alien will become our laws also. Our heavy purses will pass away from us, and our light bodies will have to shiver under a foreign yoke.

Nay, not only is it a question of expediency for our rulers to consider and encourage, but Mr. Litt takes the subject of wrestling into a far higher region. He declares, on the authority of the xxxii. chapter of Genesis, that Jacob, after passing his family over the brook Jabbok, and being left alone, actually wrestled in the body with an angel. The encounter is not to be explained away by any rationalistic refinements, or reduced to a mere allegory; but he maintains that it was a corporal struggle in the strictest sense of these terms-in fact, a bona fide wrestlingmatch--and asserts that this is "universally admitted." He argues, therefore, that it cannot be denied that wrestling was of divine origin, or

that a being more than human participated in it. It does not affect his argument, he says, that many of the commentators have dwelt upon this topic as a spiritual as well as a bodily struggle. Nay, this, instead of detracting from the importance of the science, adds greatly to its splendour; because an amusement from which so many inferences and conclusions have been drawn to promote the welfare of Christianity, cannot be either degrading or confined in its operations; but, on the contrary, must be "noble and scientific."

Mr. Litt, after this, indulges in heroics, it must be confessed. We cannot disguise the fact, however wishful we might be to screen him. from censure. His is not that mild enthusiasm of which the famous Izaak Walton, and Burton, the Anatomist of Melancholy, are the undying exemplars, but he belongs to that class of fiery enthusiasts of whom Mr. Isaac Taylor has taken note. He says: "Here then is an amusement peculiarly chosen, not only by one of the best of men, but by one better and greater than any man; and if to give strength and firmness combined with quickness and elasticity to the limbs, discrimination and vigour to the body, coolness to the head, and perception to the mind-the whole forming an energetic combination of the whole power given to man! no exercise could have been selected tending more to exalt his character, and from which such typical illustrations could have been deduced for his spiritual advancement.' "Here then," he proceeds, "we take our stand. Advocates for any other diversion, be it whatever it may! can you produce an origin either so ancient or so honourable? Men of common sense, what can you object to it? Poets and lovers, ye who deal in heroics, and invoke ideal heathen divinities! or ascribe to a mere mortal, like yourselves, the epithet angelic! or even angel itself! while any proof you could bring forward in support of your imaginary divinities (or even the propriety of using such expressions) would be disputed-nay, condemned! by thousands of well-disposed Christians: in all that we have advanced in favour of wrestling, none but atheists or heathens will attempt to confute." As

we are neither atheists nor heathens, no refutation must be expected at our hands; but we may surely be pardoned if our enthusiasm about wrestling, and our belief in its origin are not quite so ardent and thorough as those of Mr. Litt.

Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the wrestling rings of the North of England those of Newcastle-onTyne, Carlisle, and "Flan," near Ulverston-contribute not a little towards the development of that manhood, that spirit of fair play, and that magnificent manifestation of muscle, for which the mountaineers and the dalesmen both of Cumberland and Westmoreland are remarkable. There is no brutality in contests of this kind; and everything in the shape of "blacklegism" is carefully excluded. Strength, skill, quickness of eye, mobility of limb and muscle, are the prime requisites for a good wrestler. No one, who has not lived for some time in these northern counties, can form anything like an adequate conception of the excitement which the great annual wrestling matches create, of the interest which high and low take in them, and of the eagerness with which news of the "condition" of a popular favourite is listened to, not only in the cottage and in the "statesman's" homestead, but also in the hall. At market and at fair, far up on the hills, in the shepherd's hut, and deep down in the valleys, by the lake-side and the river, these matters are eagerly discussed. Professor Wilson mentions, in one of his papers, that a political friend of his, a stanch Tory, being on his way to visit the Professor, passed through the Lake district, and heard of nothing but the coming contest for the county. Now he had understood that the contest would lie between Lord Lowther, the sitting member, and Mr. Brougham, who wished to sit; but, to his surprise and consternation, neither of these names was mentioned by anybody. On the contrary, to his own great disgust, he told his friend when he met him at Bowness, on Windermere, with a downcast and serious countenance, that Lord Lonsdale would certainly be ousted, and that Mr. Brougham would as certainly not get in, for that the struggle, so far as he could learn, would be between

Thomas Ford of Egremont, and William Richardson of Caldbeck-"men of no landed property, and probably radicals." The politician had been thinking only of politics, while his fellow travellers had been thinking only of the great annual wrestlingmatch at Carlisle.

For many years, the annual matches were little more than county contests. Every village had its crack wrestler-a man who could throw any other man in his parish of his own weight --who was sent to the great annual county contest, as the representative of his own peculiar district. High hopes were entertained of him by his friends and neighbours, and he left his native place amid the enthusiastic plaudits and well-wishes of the dale. He had repeatedly thrown the best men in the village; and, therefore, there was no reason on earth why he should not compete for the prize in the county ring. Very frequently, of necessity, these hopes were disappointed, and the village don-great in his own neighbourhood

had to succumb to the superior strength and skill of more famous and practised wrestlers. By-andby, these wrestling matches grew into greater importance, and it became open to all England to contest for prizes the wrestling, however, to be conducted in the Cumberland and Westmoreland fashion. Mr. Litt informs us that, before 1809, wrestling was not much cared for at Carlisle, as it was seldom witnessed, and therefore could not be duly appreciated. He adds that it was probably owing to this circumstance that there was no celebrated wrestler either in the city itself, or within a considerable circuit of it. After a time, however, matters changed in this respect; and some of the best wrestlers in Cumberland attended the Carlisle ring, to contend, not for the county prizes as opposed to Westmoreland, but as East and West Cumberland men--east and west of the county being the largest scale on which matches were at that time conducted. At this period, the most celebrated wrestlers of the West were Richardson of Caldbeck, and Nicholson of Threlkeld; and from the East came the equally celebrated Rowantree, from the neighbourhood of Bewcastle, and the Earls (not mentioned

in the peerage, but a family of that name) from Cumwhinton. At that time, the spirit of rivalry was strong between the eastern and western divisions of the county; wagers were laid as to the chances of the respective champions of each winning; and it was therefore deemed advisable that the best wrestlers on either side should not encounter each other until the close of the contest. According to this arrangement, in wrestling through the ring, Nicholson threw the eastern heroes successively; but, because of some dispute arising about the fall with Rowantree, he threw that athlete a second time, and that, too, according to our informant, with such ease as to convince the amateurs of his superiority as a wrestler. Our informant, however, being Mr. Litt, and Mr. Litt being a West County man, and therefore likely to be strongly prejudiced in a matter of this kind, his evidence must be taken with all fair allowance. From his own confession, it appears that the same good fortune did not attend Richardson, the other West Cumberland champion; he was thrown by a noted wrestler of the name of Harrison; and Harrison was the final opponent of Nicholson, who, by throw ing him for the prize, was entitled to rank higher as a wrestler than any other man in the county.

Proud distinction! mighty achievement for it meant that the wearer of this honour-the champion's beltshould not only be received with rapturous acclainations in his own valley, or his own mountain-side, but that at all public gatherings, at market, fair, wedding, or even funeral, he should be the cynosure of all eyes the observed of all observers; that the men would regard him with profound respect, and the women eye him with favour; that the young lads would look upon him with a sort of reverential awe, and the young lasses put on their brightest looks at his appearing; that his praises would be mumbled by toothless old age by the comfortable peat-fire, and lisped by the sturdy young rustic, whose memory was still charged with the recollection of pinafores, or "brats,' as they are called, notwithstanding his present advancement to corduroys and brass buttons ;-in short, that he

should be respected and honoured as a sort of incarnation of that strength, skill, and courage, which are still so highly valued by the primitive descendants of the ancient Danish occupants of this part of the country.

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Westmoreland had its noted wrestlers also; and ultimately, and especially at "Flan," the wrestling became more universal; until at last, the man who had carried off the belt and the chief prize at Flan," Carlisle, and Newcastle, began to be regarded as the champion of England in the wrestling-ring. Rioting and brawling seldom occurred at any of these annual contests, the chief reason for this being, that the men who met to contend for the prize were, for the most part, the sons of respectable yeomen and farmers, who would have felt themselves disgraced, and who would have disgraced their families and friends had they consciously done anything disreputable. Indeed, as a rule, the utmost good humour prevailed, the stalwart competitors frequently exhibiting sport for the amusement of the spectators, before the decisive tussle commenced; and accidents were, and still are, of very rare occurrence. Among many other heroes, whose feats in the wrestling-ring Mr. Litt delights to honour, we find that he dwells with a sort of lingering fondness on the name of the Reverend Abraham Brown, who had, before entering into holy orders, been a pupil at Bampton School-the most famous seminary, not exactly for turning out the best scholars, but, certainly, for educating the best wrestlers in the kingdom. We are told that, when a very young man, Abraham Brown acquired great notoriety throughout Westmoreland and Cumberland, in that he succeeded in winning a silver cup of considerable value, at Eamont Bridge, which divides Cumberland from Westmoreland, and which was, consequently in the very centre of the most renowned wrestling country in England. It appears that, after his establishment at Egremont, Mr. Brown had no objection, in the spirit of good-fellowship, to oblige any man who felt anxious for a trial of strength and skill with him; and in these casual contests, it is said that he never was vanquished, but always came off the victor. "Abraham being

a man of considerable humour and goodnature," says Mr. Litt, "palmed himself more than once, as a friend of Parson Brown, on men who, on hearing of his celebrity, expressed a strong desire to try a fall with him. On such occasions," adds our quaint chronicler, "he pretended to be well acquainted with the Parson, and assured them that, if they could throw him easily, they would prove a match for Brown when they met with him. This, of course, caused a contest; and Master Abraham, after giving them full satisfaction, would advise them to go home, as he could assure them that they were not able to vanquish the Parson." Such was the state of society in Cumberland some seventy or eighty years ago; and though parsons no longer enter the wrestlingring to compete for prizes with stalwart yeomen, yet the yeomen and the yeomen's sons continue to keep up the practice.

"Flan" is neither in Cumberland nor Westmoreland, but is within a few miles of both; and it was here that the great match for £200 a-side and the champion-belt of England was contested for between Jackson and Atkinson, some eight or nine years ago, and which-contrary to the expectations of thousands-issued in favour of the latter. Both men were magnificent specimens of brawny humanity, Jackson standing about six feet three inches, while his antagonist, though half an inch shorter, brought to the tussle some eighteen stone weight of well-developed muscle. His great weight and vast strength won him the victory on this occasion, although he had frequently been compelled to yield to the superior skill and science of Jackson in former encounters. Atkinson was trained by his brother-in-law, George Donaldson, one of the best light-weight wrestlers of the time; while Jackson was trained by Robley, one of his own pupils, and who, after vanquishing Longmire, at Brampton- Longmire who had, we suppose, gained as many belts as Richardson, who had obtained 240, and whom Professor Wilson declares to be better entitled than even old Howard of Castle Dacre to the cognomen of "Belted Will," was considered able to throw any man in the world, excepting Atkinson and

was

Jackson, of course. Jackson, as we have said, was the popular candidate, as Robley had given it out that, in the course of his training, he had almost invariably thrown him, Robley, four times out of every five; and some thousands of pounds passed out of the pockets of Jackson's friends, in consequence of their unbounded confidence in him. Jackson known to be the most splendid wrestler of his day; and, as his weight was usually sixteen stone, it was generally supposed that the greater weight of his adversary would not enable the latter to overcome the extraordinary skill of the former. Atkinson, however, had been advised to trust to his weight and strength alone; and, although he was by no means an unskilful wrestler, he acted in accordance with this advice, and actually, by main strength, forced his powerful and dangerous antagonist over his knee. Elated by this success-for he had not often beaten Jackson before-he "showed play," as wrestlers say, and had to pay for his temerity, for he was hiped" in a moment by Jackson, and the giant's eighteen stone of bone and muscle came heavily to the ground. After this experiment, he heeded the advice which had been given him, and literally squeezed Jackson to the ground in the two succeeding rounds; and thus, as the match was for the best man out of five falls, Atkinson was proclaimed the Champion of England.

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In regard to this great contest, at which many persons of the highest rank were present, it ought to be stated, that Jackson was not in good

condition," weighing only fourteen and a-half stones, instead of sixteen, his usual weight; and that he gave Atkinson every advantage, while the latter allowed him none, having good cause to be afraid of the prowess of his graceful and chivalrous adver