Book Notes: The Small-Sword in England (Aylward)

"Well Devon's not around and look at the empty space I've found, this one's mine!!"

(Apologies to Chris de Burgh, Spanish Train)

Given Devon’s absence on other commitments, I thought I’d sneak into his usual space for some non-press related, sword-resource time.

With all due respect to some truly excellent writers and researchers out there in internet-land that have posted great, ground-breaking or thought-provoking articles on a whole variety of WMA or sword history topics, this dinosaur still believes that there is room in our lives for a well crafted book that fully researches and explains a single topic – at some length.

We’re fortunate in the western world that have has a series of authors from Messer’s Hutton to Loades that have taken the time to put to paper (or electron if you really must use an E-book) their thoughts on select sword or WMA topics.

With your patient indulgence, from time-to-time I’ll try to introduce you to some that have caught my interest or increased my knowledge of our craft and art.  Basically, I’ll give a short synopsis of the work; and then a few quotes that appeal to ‘my’ interests or sense of humour.

Respects all;

Wes

Aylward, J.D.  The Small-Sword in England.  Hutchinson & Co., London, UK.  1960  171 pp

Being shy and unaccustomed to public speaking, I’m going to try to make this simple:  This is the best book on a single WMA-related weapon that I have ever had the pleasure of reading! 

 One may not agree with every point or observation offered by Mr Aylward about the perfection of his selected weapon, but you cannot gainsay the research, experience nor passion that went into this near-all encompassing work on a single blade type.

Aylward wrote his work in order to ‘stimulate interest in the ‘sword of fashion’ as it existed between the Restoration and the end of George III – the weapon being pretty much ignored in post-Victorian England in favour of collecting arming swords and rapiers.

And what a job he did!  The chapters cover most any subject that you would ask about the small-sword; how it was made; how it was used or about the people that used it … or as covered in the sub-title: Its History, its Forms, its Makers, and its Masters. 

 And can this man write!  Clear, concise and picturesque … this gentleman knows his craft, and the paragraphs flow by quickly.  The Appendices on makers of swords, contracting, etc are clear and logically laid out – and completely cover long lists of historical data better not spoken of at length within the main text. 

Quotes Out of Context.

Domenico Angelo was England’s Master of the Small-sword, publishing his very successful ‘Ecole des Armes’ in 1763 and teaching from 1761-1802 – during which he made the princely sum of £4,000 a year {Comment:  That’s about $394,000/year modern Canadian – apparently, the floors of a fencing salle are paved with gold!  A little-know, carefully hidden fact our own Master-at-Arms at the Acedemie Duello probably alluded to when his chauffer dropped him off to speak about “Starting and Running a School of Western Martial Arts” at the Western Martial Arts Workshop (WMAW)  - http://www.wmaw.us/2011/Classes.htm#Starting_a_School }.  (p.109)

“… it seems probable that the only blood most small-swords have tasted comes from abrasions inflicted on them in the process of cleaning, … the owners giving more thought about the art of carrying their weapons than they did about the way to put them to serious use.” (p.21)

“It is still the privilege of a gentleman to wear his sword when in attendance upon his Sovereign.”  (p.21)  {Note:  UK and Canadian military officers are still entitled to wear their dress swords in the presence of the Crown}

“… it is quite certain that the average man was just as careless with his weapon as is his descendant is with his umbrella.” (p.33)  {Note:  This brings to mind two things – that getlemen of the time were ‘very’ comfortable carrying the white arm as a ‘routine event’; and … under what circumstances would you forget to leave your sword behind you – like an umbrella on a bus??!!}

One 1716 author “warns his readers against the arts exercised by the pupils of the contemporary Fagins, suggesting that they had a special predilection for the silver hilts of others, …”  (p.33)  {Question:  How do you ‘pickpocket’ a sword in a sheath … and two; should you?}

 [When the author spoke of sword hilts and their development]: “… when the idea of swordsmanship first dawned upon fighting men it fell almost naturally to the Italians to codify experience and at the same time add new members to the primitive cross-guard after they had produced a weapon which they deemed perfection, the Spaniards stepped in to replace the rings of the swept hilt by cups and shells.  Finally the French, to whom proverbially nothing is sacred, transformed the rapier utterly in order to create the small-sword. ” (p.63)  {Comment:  Meow! }

“… the French have always taken the arts seriously, and in the case of the sword believed that three years’ unremitting practice was required before a man could call himself a swordsman, the English amateurs thought that three months was more than sufficient …” (p.107) … Why? “(they cherished) the comforting belief that a tyro really has the advantage, if only because he is bound to puzzle the expert by doing something quite unexpected.”  (p.106)

“English law called an unpremeditated clash of steel a ‘rencounter’; it reserved the word ‘duel’ for a premeditated affair in which time had been allowed to pass between offense and satisfaction.” (p.115)

Duelling in England:  Between 1760 and 1821, there were 172 ‘hostile meetings’, 69 fatalities, 48 seriously hurt and 48 less so.  The rate of one killed a year and one or two hurt hardly support the claims about the ‘social havoc’ caused by duelling. (p.116)

“The eighteenth century man was a cynic, and while he would gush nauseously about the charms of his inamoratas of the moment, he had no idea of making himself ridiculous by fighting over her.” (p.121)

“Sir William Hope, with Scottish candour, certainly warns those who buy or borrow his ‘Scots Fencing Master (1687)’ that they can learn little from books except what he calls scathingly the ‘contemptible ability of posing as expert swordsmen’, and he is unique among his colleagues in confessing to scepticism about the virtue of the written word.”  (p.126)