FOOTBALL. Few of the investigators who tried to discover the origins of the game of football have gone very far, for they have soon found that the sport of football as enjoyed by ancient peoples had no relation to the organized game which is played in modern times. The early history of football, in England, and its nature, are also obscure. Joseph Strutt, writing in 1801, said : "It was formerly much in vogue among the common people. though of late years it seems to have fallen into disrepute and is little practised." Yet at the same time he had hazy ideas that some sort of a football game was then being played in England. for he adds that when a match of football is played there are two goals, with a distance of 8o or ioo yards between them, that the object of each party is to drive the ball, a blown bladder cased with leather, through the goal of its antagonist, and that some times the players kick each others' shins without the least cere mony. Only in the '5os of last century did sane order begin to appear and the basis was laid for the distinction between Rugby and Association. (See FOOTBALL, ASSOCIATION ; FOOTBALL, RUGBY.)