Sport and Colonialism in 19th Century Australasia - LA84 Foundation

attempted to reproduce the best traditions of the Mother Country.
The ideal was greatly inspired through the works of two eminent
Victorian novelists, Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hughes. 11 In
Westward Ho! (1855) and Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857), Kingsley and
Hughes, respectively, transformed the Arnoldian concept of
'Christian manliness', which represented the Christianising of
a man's character through moral endeavours, by augmenting it
with a distinctive muscular or physical dimension. The label
'muscular Christianity' was subsequently coined as an expression
of this new concept, 12 and certain sports, notably the team games
of cricket and football, were considered, in Hughes' own words,
worthy for the training of a man's body "for the protection of
the weak, and the advancement of all righteous causes". 13
Hughes, while holding no claim to the term's invention, certainly
endorsed its use in following years as the doctrine gained
wider appeal and acceptance through his stories of Tom Brown at
Rugby and Oxford. 14
Kingsley was apparently ignorant of the
origin of the label and preferred instead to preach of 'manly
Christianity'. 15
The true intent of his writings was "to lead
men to a higher physical type of manhood" in order that "they
should 'Glorify God in their body as well as in their spirit...
to best improve, and to use to the best purpose, the mental and
physical faculties that God has given them". 16
Victorian Australians
were exposed on a number of occasions to this Kingslyan
interpretation of healthy Christian manliness. But more frequently,
they paid lip service to other assertions which were
commonly associated with the muscular Christian gospel. They
coveted the quality of 'manliness', and thus emphasised the
benefits of 'manly' exercises. They were absorbed with the
idea of mens sana in corpore sano and condoned practices which
brought about this satisfactory state. In short, they provided
a powerful rationale for the promotion and development of the
organised sport and physical activity of their age.
Early in 1859, Bell's Life in Victoria declared itself a devout
believer in 'Muscular Christianity' and explained some of
the creed's virtues as well as its sources of transmission and
diffusion. 17
The lengthy editorial proclaimed that "health and
exercise have a great effect in producing a well-balanced mind"
and a manly temperament. It considered football, cricket and
21