I haven’t read A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story, in quite some time, but I stumbled across this amusing list penned by Watson soon after meeting the consulting detective (reproduced at The Man Sherlock Holmes):
SHERLOCK HOLMES - his limits.
1. Knowledge of Literature. - Nil.
2. ' ' Philosophy. - Nil.
3. ' ' Astronomy. - Nil.
4. ' ' Politics. - Feeble.
5. ' ' Botany. - Variable.
Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally.
Knows nothing of practical gardening.
6. Knowledge of Geology. - Practical, but limited.
Tells at aglance different soils from each other.
After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told
me by their colour and consistence in what part of Londonn he
had received them.
7. Knowledge of Chemistry. - Profound.
8. ' ' Anatomy. - Accurate, but un-systematic.
9. ' ' Sensatinal Literature. - Immense. He appears to
know every horror perpetrated in the century.
10.Plays the violin well.
11.Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.
12.Has a good practical knowledge of British law.
A modern reader might ask, what’s singlestick? Some kind of field hockey? No, it’s “swordfighting” with wooden swords. The Journal of Manly Arts (I could not make up such a thing) has a wonderful article on the once-popular sport, Singlestick Fencing: 1787-1923, by Tony Wolf:
Singlesticks — wooden rods of about thirty-five inches in length, equipped with rigid guards which completely enclose the fencer’s hand — were the 18th and 19th century descendants of Medieval wasters, wooden facsimile weapons popularly used for weapon training. These practice tools allowed a greater measure of safety, and were less expensive to replace, than steel swords. During the Georgian and Victorian eras, Singlestick play was popularly employed in prize-fights and tournament competitions, for which purposes it was sometimes also known as cudgelling or backswording. The weapon was also used as a substitute for the Naval cutlass and cavalry sabre during training exercises.Singlestick fencing was widely practised throughout England, the British Commonwealth, and the U.S.A. until the early part of the 20th century, often in tandem with the other popular recreations of the salle d’armes, including foil, duelling-sword (epee), bayonet and quarterstaff fencing. Two annual English Singlestick competitions were instituted between 1880-1900; one held in June as part of the Grand Military Tournament, and the other hosted by the German Gymnasium in December. Thus, by the turn of the twentieth century, Singlestick fencing had become established as an internationally popular combat sport, drawing from the intertwined traditions of rustic cudgel-play, military drill and the private fencing academy.
The first decades of the twentieth century brought about the decline of Singlestick play. Tragically, many young athletes lost their lives in the Great War (1914-1919). Subsequent advances in technology allowed the mass-manufacture of relatively inexpensive, flexible and lightweight steel fencing blades, and in the 1920′s the organisers of the Olympic Games selected three fencing sports — foil, epee and sabre — as Olympic events. As a result, many clubs began to focus exclusively on these forms of fencing, with sabre in particular coming to subsume a great deal of Singlestick practice and technique. The Great Depression of the 1930s and the Second World War in the ’40s similarly diminished interest in obscure fencing methods, until the sport of Singlestick effectively became extinct.
The accompanying timeline has some wonderful tidbits. I love the title of this 1790 text: Anti-Pugilism; or, The Science of Defence Exemplified In Short and Easy Lessons for the Practice of the Broad Sword and Single Stick Illustrated with Copper Plates By a Highland Officer. Or how about this excerpt from a letter from architect William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, discussing plans for a University in the state of Virginia:
Let all the Exercises be such as would tend to make great and useful men, and the military Exercises, fencing with the broad and small sword, boxing with mufflers, playing the single Stick, jumping, wrestling, throwing the Javelin and whatever tends to render men most athletic, at the same time that it tends to perfect them in what may eventually be of use, ought only to be permitted as sports in their leisure hours. Thus would I make men of active Bodies, as well as of extraordinary Minds.
Thomas Hughes, author of Tom Brown’s Schooldays described “backswording” (singlesticking) from his youth:
The weapon is a good stout ash-stick with a large basket-handle — The players are called “old gamesters,” — why, I can’t tell you, — and their object is simply to break one another’s heads: for the moment that blood runs an inch anywhere above the eyebrow, the old gamester to whom it belongs is beaten, and has to stop. A very slight blow with the sticks will fetch blood, so that it is by no means a punishing pastime, if the men don’t play on purpose, and savagely, at the body and arms of their adversaries.
This reminds me that I should really get back into escrima (Filipino stickfighting) — only that’s much easier to find in the OC than on the Main Line.