"This stone honors the exploit of William Webb Ellis who with a fine disdain for the guidelines of soccer, as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the specific feature of the Rugby game A.D. 1823"
The game of Rugby has a wonderful history that is steeped in conventions of the ages. Rough and tumble games involving multiple players on each side fighting to get possession of a ball made from a pig's bladder stuffed with air and transport it to a marker at one end of a patch of ground can be traced into the middle ages. Frequently these games have Celtic and Viking origins. Otherwise, they can be traced back to the Romans. However these games came to be, we do know that the people of Britain had a fondness for playing them.
