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Hillfort
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Oh yes we used to make our own entertainment in those days. None of these computer games and ipod things. We knew how to have a good time. If you were wondering what 'backsword play' was, mentioned in Hughes' poem here
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/31182
well:
"In backsword play, two men fought with short cudgels, the winner being he who first drew blood from his opponent's head. In this game the men of the Berkshire-Wiltshire border used to fight the men of Somerset, and it was a complaint of the Berkshiremen that the Somerset heads were hard to draw blood from, since 'there's no 'cumulation of blood belongs to thay cider-drinking chaps, as there does to we as drinks beer. Besides, they drinks vinegar allus for a week afore playin', which dries up most o' the blood as they has got; so it takes a 'mazing sight of cloutin' to break their heads as should be."
From Hughes's 'The Scouring of the White Horse' (1859) p132. The 'pastimes' were usually held inside Uffington Castle.
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Posted by Rhiannon
15th October 2006ce
Edited 15th October 2006ce
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