Professor Malcolmson provides a full account of the sports, pastimes and festive celebrations of the English labouring people in the eighteenth century.

First Published in 1982. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A History of Modern Britain: 1714 to the Present presents a lively introduction to the history of the modern British Isles from the Hanoverian succession to the present day. Develops themes of tradition and change, the role of the four nations of the British Isles, and Britain in a world context Complements the narrative with descriptions of fascinating personalities from Britain's past, from the arsonist James Aitken and the female adventurer Jane Digby, to the celebrity footballer George Best Includes features to help orientate the reader: illustrations, maps, royal family genealogies, chronology, and glossary; online supplements include preliminary chapter from 1688 An accompanying website containing additional support and materials for lecturers and students is available at www.wiley.com/go/wasson

This book seeks to redress the balance of reporting in the sport's literature which has always favoured the activities of aquatic gentlemen at the public schools, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Henley Regatta and on the River Thames. This study focuses on the many who helped instigate and nurture the sport but who have been forgotten due to their not being associated with the elite of the sport.

Sport as it is largely understood today was invented during the long eighteenth century when the modern rules of sport were codified; sport emerged as a business, a spectacle, and a performance; and gaming organized itself around sporting culture. Examining the underexplored intersection of sport, literature, and culture, this collection situates sport within multiple contexts, including religion, labor, leisure time, politics, nationalism, gender, play, and science. A poetics, literature, and culture of sport swelled during the era, influencing artists such as John Collett and writers including Lord Byron, Jonathan Swift, and Henry Fielding. This volume brings together literary scholars and historians of sport to demonstrate the ubiquity of sport to eighteenth-century life, the variety of literary and cultural representations of sporting experiences, and the evolution of sport from rural pastimes to organized, regular events of national and international importance. Each essay offers in-depth readings of both material practices and representations of sport as they relate to, among other subjects, recreational sports, the Cotswold games, clothing, women archers, tennis, celebrity athletes, and the theatricality of boxing. Taken together, the essays in this collection offer valuable multiple perspectives on reading sport during the century when sport became modern.