Amazon has for a while now been suggesting some frankly psychotic reading matter for me (cf my Tivo thinks I’m gay). I fence and of course read about fencing, and on the basis of this reading I am offered such delights as Put 'em Down, Take 'em Out!: Knife Fighting Techniques from Folsom Prison and Cheap Shots, Ambushes and Other Manoeuvres .eventually of course I purchase something, albeit from the historical rather than prison violence side, and English Martial Arts is proving an Intriguing read. it posits the existence of a complete organised system of martial arts, much in the more familiar model of oriental systems (though without the explicitly spiritual dimension they possess), with four levels from scholar to master progression between which is made by virtue of a 'prize'. This prize is an examination fight rather than a purse and is mentioned in accounts up until the late 18th century.
Posted by flambingo at February 28, 2003 12:54 PM