"JOHN SOPER and a boy named ENDACOTT were charged with a disturbance at the end of Queen-street last night.
"There is an old custom among our Exeter boys, which prescribes inveterate warfare between the youths of the different parishes, 'Young Trinity' has earned not bloodless laurels in a hundred conflicts with 'the Mary-Major', boys,'who have often been driven from their strong position on Bell-hill, and have strongly resisted the tide of advancing war, combating pro aris et focus (sic) in the narrow defiles of Sun-lane, rallying in Market-street, but borne by superior numbers even to the Bartholomew-yard on the other side.
"It is sufficient to say that this fight was most furious; and it took the Inspector and Milman, and four other policemen, to capture two boys.
"They were cautioned and dismissed."
This newspaper report from The Western Times of 7th March, 1846, of street battles between gangs of boys in Exeter is written with such detached irony that it is hard to imagine the reality.
Did six policemen really chase around at night trying to catch warring boys who were disturbing the peace by fighting to defend 'their altars and their homes' here in Exeter?, and was there really 'inveterate warfare between the youths of the different parishes?' How old were these youths? How 'not bloodless' were these battles? How many were in these 'armies'?
It seems to me that 'gangs' are back in fashion in Exeter. I don't remember in former years having seen such large groupings of young people in the city as I now see nightly, some even 'in uniform'. (courtesy of the Internet and Amazon?) . On the whole though they seem to behave themselves and, as far as I can tell, they don't make any territorial claims.
(I suspect that The Times' typesetters were not quite as familiar with Latin tags as were the reporters!) .
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