THE ‘SPORTSMAN’ AND THE ‘MUSCULAR CHRISTIAN’: RIVAL IDEALS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND

In Thomas Hughes’ novel,Tom Brown’s School Days, the classic text of ‘muscular Christianity’, the villain Flashman and his clique are described as “fast sporting young gentlemen”.¹ At first sight this might seem surprising as the novel is famous (or, in the eyes of some readers, infamous) for its extended accounts of football and cricket matches, bare-knuckle boxing and many other forms of sporting encounter. Moreover, to call someone a ‘sportsman’ was for many people of the time the highest form of praise. Hughes clearly could not object to Flashman’s interest in sport. The critique focused on four main points.