This year’s F. A. Cup Final arouses widespread interest in a very ancient game.

“The Daily Herald” recalls that the Chinese played a kind of football ages ago. The winners of a match were always regaled with a great “feed” and acclaimed as heroes, but the losers dared not lift their heads for shame, and the losing captain was invariably flogged!

There were numerous attempts to prohibit the game in Mediaeval England, and Elizabeth’s reign found the “murderous game of ball” forbidden on pain of imprisonment. But the people could not be denied a fast improving game, and so football came into its own. It was played in all sorts of queer places, but most often across the open country.

In some instances the goals were several miles apart, and whole villages played each other.