|
Thomas M. M. Hemy
datapages
01,
02
&
03 are now on site. Plus all
of the other image pages, accessible though the index on page
05.  PRIOR PAGE / NEXT PAGE
If you want to make a comment, a site guestbook is here. Test.
To search for specific text on this page:- Enter your search
term & 'Submit'. To repeatedly search the page, press 'ALT S' again & again as
many times as may be required. But beware, once it reaches the bottom of the
page, it starts all over again at the top.
On site page
02, I
earlier had these words to offer
about this Thomas Hemy work:
Should you read the extensive article on site page
03, you will
learn that the artist "painted Rugby, Eton, Harrow, the great national schools of England." And read also Thomas Hemy's own
words about those works. He specifically mentions his painting of 'Eton Wall Game'. Well
here it is, available for purchase from EasyArt.
A hand coloured restrike etching, so I read.
And the Eton Wall Game? I have read that it is a cross between soccer
&
rugby, and has been played at Eton College & nowhere else in the world for almost 300 years.
The first recorded game was in 1776. It is played by two teams of a maximum of 10 players, in a playing area
about five metres wide
& about 110 metres long, bounded on one side by a high wall. The objective is to get the ball to the end of the wall
& score a goal.
Exceptionally exhausting to play, it is however said to be far more skillful
than might appear to the uninitiated. 'The skill consists in the remorseless
application of pressure and leverage as one advances inch by inch through a
seemingly impenetrable mass of opponents'. It is most
unlikely that you will one day see the Wall Game in the Olympic Games or on television. According to the Daily Telegraph,
'it is generally considered to be
the world's worst spectator sport as most of the action takes place within the scrum, or 'bully', when all that can be seen are the
player's legs and backs for long periods of time'. The big game of the school
year is played on St. Andrews Day. No one has scored a goal since 1909! But what
a splendid tradition!
The above words may need revising. It would seem
that at the 2002 game two goals were scored. The first goals since 1909, I
believe. Read on below.
Should you wish to learn more early words about the Eton Wall Game, I have spotted that the 1913/1914 Boys Own Paper
Annual, Volume 36, had an article on the subject, of at least three pages in length. From an e-Bay
item in Feb. 2006
which in fact has a giant image available of the first two pages of the article.
Someday, perhaps, I will find a space to get
the text of those two pages on site, though it is not very easy to read via the
image provided. Or better, from the BOP volume or the article itself should they ever
come to hand. Out of curiosity!
An update on my earlier words.
Above I indicated that a hand coloured restrike
etching of the work is available
from Easyart. Well, in early
Mar. 2006,
a 'rare original 1888 etching', in black & white was for sale via e-Bay. It
was re-listed a number of times & sold in Jun. 2006 for U.S. $185.00.
The first such item I have ever seen in a number of years of searching for Hemy
items. The
print, it would seem, was signed by both the artist and by George Wooliscroft Rhead, the
engraver,
both
in pencil below the image & printed within the
image. A image of 22 x 16 inches (56 x 40 cm) with the overall print size being
at least 26 x 19.25 inches (66 x 49 cm) - 'at least' because the print was not
taken out of its frame to measure what was under the frame edge. In small
print above the image is written
'London Published Jan. 1st, 1888 by Messrs. Dickinsons, Publishers to the
Queen. 114 Bond Street, W. Copyright
Registered.'
The vendor, ljsellers of Kansas City,
Missouri, clearly did his homework on the history of the Eton Wall Game.
He provided 5 images with his listing and I show here a 'composite' image with the main image (with reflection removed),
a small image of the overall print (also with reflection removed) & a tiny version of an image available on 'The Economist' site (see below) which shows the game
in progress. With spectators sitting on the top edge of the wall just as in Hemy's
work. Absent, I should note permissions to do so. I hope I may be
forgiven & if not I shall remove as is appropriate. The listing page with all the text and images is now gone, however.
The vendor's words were as follows.
The Eton Wall Game is a vigorous hybrid of rugby union and football played on a strip of
ground 5 metres wide and 110 metres long next a slightly curved
brick wall, which was erected in 1717. The most important match is the
annual St. Andrew’s Day game which is played between a team of 'Collegers'
(scholarship-holders) and a team of 'Oppidans' (the rest of the students, who
comprise most of the student body). In the Wall Game, each team tries to move
the ball towards their opponent's end of the playing area. In those last few
yards of the lengthy field (an area called the 'calx'--which is Latin for
chalk), a player can earn a 'shy' (worth one point) by lifting the ball against
the wall with his foot. A team mate then touches the ball with his hand and
shouts 'Got it!' Those two plays must be entirely within Calx. This also gives
the scoring team the right to attempt a goal (worth nine points) by throwing the
ball at a designated target (a garden door at one end of the field and a tree at
the other end). A player may score a kicked goal, worth five points, if he kicks
the ball out in and it hits a goal during the normal course of play. The process of getting the ball is arduous
and a stalemate often ensues. This is because, in effect, the game consists of
the two sets of players forming a rugby-style scrummage (called a 'Bully') in
which neither team may move the ball backwards (except in Calx, where a
different type of Bully occurs). The Bully is formed next to the Wall and crabs
slowly up and down the Wall inch by inch until the ball emerges. Many players,
particularly those whose position is actually against the Wall (the position is
termed 'Wall'), lose the skin off their elbows, hips and knees. Players within
the Bully shove and push each other, mostly with their bodies but also by
placing their fists (actual punching is not permitted) against the faces of the
opposition and attempting to lever them backwards and away from the Wall. The only fast way to make ground is by
kicking the ball upfield and out of play whenever it dribbles out of the Bully -
unlike most types of football play is restarted opposite where the ball stops
after it had gone out, or was touched after it had gone out. The game lasts up to an hour (30 mins per
half); many games end 0-0. Scoring goals
is very rare; the last goal in the St Andrew's Day game was in 1909, though
there was a goal scored in a scratch match (a less formal warm-up match for the
St. Andrew's Day game) in October 2005 by Hector Guinness. Other matches are
played, and the average year will see six "shies" scored. (In the 2002 St Andrew's Day match, the
Oppidans won 2-0, with Prince Harry, younger son of The Prince of Wales, scoring
one of the two shies). In the most recent St. Andrews
Day, the outcome of the match was a 0-0 draw, both sides failing to score.
The Wall Game is run almost entirely by
boys, particularly by the Keepers of College Wall and Oppidan Wall. It is the
former of these, Alex 'Trevor' Sever, who is currently the most active in its
organisation; his position has in the past been held by Boris Johnson, the
politician. Eric Blair (a.k.a. George Orwell) and Harold Macmillan have been
other famous players of the game. Despite its renown outside the school, in fact
only a very small number of the 250 or so boys in each year ever take part in
the sport, unlike the lesser-known but much more widely played Eton Field Game. The first all-female Wall Game was played on
July 15th 2005, by a group of lower sixth form students on a Summer School
course at Eton. The final score was, alas,
0-0. Click here for an article about the Wall Game in The
Economist magazine of 17th November 2003.
Eton College played a great role in the
development of rugby football in England, and helped influence the
development of American football. In
1873, an Eton Rugby team played Yale and insisted on 11 players per side, the
first such game in the United
States (games up to then had 15 or 20 players
per side). A young
school boy named Walter Camp was in attendance at the game, and 7 years later,
as the Yale Captain and Coach, Camp convinced the rules makers to permanently
change the game to 11 per side.
Note that through the link above to the Nov. 2003 article in 'The Economist',
I was able to access the
rules of the game, as available here, in a pdf, from Eton College.
The rules, were published in 1934, & revised in 2001. Published for Eton College by Spottiswoode, Ballantyne and Co.
'(Revised 1933) 1934. 12mo. 23 pp'. As you once could see via an e-Bay listing.
That e-Bay item sold in Mar. 2006 for GBP 14.99 or approximately U.S. $26.25. In fact I now see that there are today, in fact, many WWW pages about the Wall Game,
but the
content of all of them is essentially the same. i.e. of content as above.
In Oct. 2006 another print, similar to that described above but
hand-coloured, was offered for
sale on e-Bay. Offered at GBP 99 or approximately
U.S. $186.40. No bids however. It had 'a college
ink stamp next to the sculptor's name', which I presume means next to the
engraver's name. The listing image was modest & that college 'stamp' was too
small to show you here.
The webmaster is always happy to find information related
to the subject matter of his various pages. If YOU could add any data
to this list
or help in any way, do drop me a line.
Thomas Hemy datapages 01,
02
& 03 are on site plus all
of the
other image pages available through the index on page
05.
To MV Danmark
Slider Puzzle Page
& to the
Special Pages Index.
| A SITE SEARCH FACILITY
THE GUEST BOOK - GO
HERE
|
|
|