Show CROMWELL FOND OF SPORT From Macmlllans Magazine Cromwell like his brothers in arms is often described as a morose and gloomy fanatic We hear of him going through days of sorrow because he had par taken In some innocent enjoyment Ho always had a great fear of the evil one The real Cromwell however was by no means afraid to enjoy himself or averse to amusements Oliver as one of his officers observes loved an innocent inno-cent jest and especially a practical jest Under the curass of the general or the royal robe of the protector he was always an athletic country gentleman gentle-man of sporting tastes His royal biographers bi-ographers make his early taste for ath letics one of their charges against him He learned little at Cambridge says Carron Heath and was mnrp fan ous for his exercises in the field than In the schools being one of the chief 1 matchmakers and players of football cudgels or any other boisterous sport or gam He was soon cloyed with studies adds Bates delighting more in horses and pastimes abroad in the fields This much we may safely believe buj Heath is probably inventing when he informs us that after Mr Cromwell re turned to his home at Huntingdon his chief weapon in which he delighted and with which he fought several times with tinkers peddlers and the like was a quarterstaff at which he was so skillful that seldom did any over match him |