James Polkinghorne (1788 – 15 September 1854) was a champion Cornish wrestler of the 19th century. He was born in 1788 at St Keverne, Cornwall, United Kingdom but spent much of his life at St. Columb Major, where he ran a pub called the Red Lion.
He had a number of famous contests against Devon fighters, including Flower, Jackman (1816) and Abraham Cann (1826). The Devonians, "kickers", fought in the Devon style, wearing boots with toes that had been soaked in bullock's blood and then baked as "hard as flint". Polkinghorne fought in the Cornish style and was a "hugger" who fought without footwear. He died at St Columb at the age of 76.
Read more about James Polkinghorne: Polkinghorne's Match With Cann
Famous quotes containing the word james:
“Mankind’s common instinct for reality ... has always held the world to be essentially a theatre for heroism. In heroism, we feel, life’s supreme mystery is hidden. We tolerate no one who has no capacity whatever for it in any direction. On the other hand, no matter what a man’s frailties otherwise may be, if he be willing to risk death, and still more if he suffer it heroically, in the service he has chosen, the fact consecrates him forever.”
—William James (1842–1910)