Editing Eton wall game (section)

==History==
{{wikisource|Laws of the Eton Wall Game (1874)}}
The wall against which the game is played was constructed in 1717.  According to an 1868 article, the Wall Game "used formerly to be played in [a playing area with a width of] twenty yards, with the [[Eton field game|field rules]] in use, only with the exception  that the ball used frequently to be held against the wall, and  the goals were, at one end a door, at the other a tree. However, the distance from the wall where 'the [boundary] line' was made became 'fine by degrees and beautifully less,' and it is now only six yards from the wall".<ref name="sportsman"/>

[[File:Eton College Wall Game.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Coat of arms of Eton College, where the game was developed]]
A possible early reference to the wall game occurs in the anonymously-published reminiscences of Henry John Blake (born 1791).  Blake reports that he was "going away with the ball in style towards the goal, a large tree" when he was fouled by an opponent.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433067416358?urlappend=%3Bseq=56 |page=44 |title=Reminiscences of Eton |author=An Etonian |location=Chichester |year=1831|hdl=2027/nyp.33433067416358?urlappend=%3Bseq=56 }}</ref>

Between 1811 and 1822, "[f]ootball was almost confined to the Wall game, and at most forty players, mostly constant", although there were also "occasional trifling games in the open [i.e., the Field game], rare in interval and rare in players".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/etonoldoreighty01bensgoog |pages=[https://archive.org/details/etonoldoreighty01bensgoog/page/n140 115]–116 |title=Eton of Old, or Eighty Years since 1811-1822 |author="An Old Colleger" [W. H. Tucker] |year=1892 |location=London |publisher=Griffith Farran Co.}}</ref>

[[File:Eton Wall Game (1876).png|thumb|300px|A bully just outside good calx (1876)]]
A letter from March 1821 states "there is a wall ... against which they play Foot-ball in the season; indeed they say it is capital weather for it now, but it is not the fashionable game, so nobody dares to propose it."<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.aa0001412808?urlappend=%3Bseq=239 |page=229 |title=The Rashleigh Letter-bag |journal=The Etonian |issue=viii  |volume=ii |date=June 1821 |publisher=Knight and Dredge |location=Windsor |hdl=2027/uc1.aa0001412808?urlappend=%3Bseq=239 }}</ref>

The Collegers v. Oppidans match was banned in 1827 for ten years after a fight broke out during the game.<ref>{{cite book |title=Upon St Andrew's Day, 1841-1901 |first=R. A. |last=A[usten]-L[eigh] |year=1902 |page=vi}}, quoted in {{cite book |title=A History of British Football |first=Percy M. |last=Young |year=1968 |publisher=Arrow Books |isbn=0-09-907490-7 |location=London |page=103}}</ref>  It had resumed by 1836.<ref>{{cite book |title=Boys Together: English Public Schools 1800-1864 |year=1984 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-03215-3 |location=New Haven, CT |first=John |last=Chandos |page=[https://archive.org/details/boystogetherengl00chan/page/354 354] |url=https://archive.org/details/boystogetherengl00chan|url-access=registration }}</ref>

An article on "Eton games" in the 19 November 1832 issue of the Eton College magazine includes a detailed description of the wall game (called simply "Foot-ball").<ref>{{cite journal 
|date=1832-11-19
|pages=283–285
|journal=Eton College Magazine
|issue=viii
|title=On Eton Games, Continued
|hdl=2027/nyp.33433081625935?urlappend=%3Bseq=309
|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433081625935?urlappend=%3Bseq=309
}}</ref>  It notes that the game was already played "in a space not more than five or six yards wide".
The 29 November 1840 issue of ''Bell's Life in London'' features a description of "the annual match ... between Collegers and Oppidans" played on 24 November 1840: 
the Collegers won by seven "shies", with no goal being scored by either side.<ref>{{cite journal |date=1840-11-29 |journal=Bell's Life in London |page=4 |title=[Letter to the editor]|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Football_(Bells_Life_in_London)_1840-11-29.png |first=C. |last=Pepys}}</ref>  The article adds that this was "the first time since 1836 that the Oppidans have been beaten".

The rules of the Wall Game were first written down in 1849.<ref name="sportsman">{{cite journal |title=At the Wall |date=1868-11-26 |journal=Sportsman |page=4 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:At_The_Wall_(Sportsman)_1868-11-26.png}}</ref>  They were subsequently revised in 1862, 1871, and 1953.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Wall Game at Eton |first=Leslie E. |last=Wells |pages=580–581 |journal=Meccano Magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/meccano-magazine-1955-11/page/n15 |date=November 1955 |volume=xl |issue=11}}</ref>  Eton College archives possess copies of the rules from 1885 and 1933.<ref>{{cite book |title=Rules of the wall game, as played at Eton |year=1885 |publisher=R. Ingalton Drake |location=Eton |url=http://collections.etoncollege.com/B36678 |access-date=16 October 2019 |archive-date=16 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016212744/http://collections.etoncollege.com/B36678 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Rules of the Wall Game, revised 1933 |url=http://collections.etoncollege.com/object-mel-527-18-2010 |access-date=16 October 2019 |archive-date=16 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016212744/http://collections.etoncollege.com/object-mel-527-18-2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  The 16th revision of the rules was made in 2001.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.etoncollege.com/userfiles/files/RULES_OF_THE_WALL_GAME2.pdf |title=Rules of the Wall Game as Played at the Wall at Eton College |year=2001 |access-date=2019-10-16}}</ref>