Tom Brown's Schooldays," by Thomas Hughes. Specifically, it will look at how this work describes sports in 19th century England, and compare it with other historical descriptions of English sports.

TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS

Tom Brown's School Days," written in 1857, is the story of young Tom Brown, a student at the public school called Rugby School. The schoolboys at Rugby, as might be expected, play Rugby football, which is quite different from American football. The winner is the one who gets the "best of three goals; whichever side kicks two goals wins: and it won't do, you see, just to kick the ball through these posts -- it must go over the cross-bar; any height'll do, so long as it's between the posts" (Hughes), Tom's new friend tells him.

Rugby also uses far more people than our game, with 50-60 players on each side. Goals are kicked like American field...
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