136 MEMORIES OF THE SHIRES 



With the Field's permission I now give the 

 article written for them at the time. 



" A Sporting Match 



" Disappointment and regret will be generally 

 felt at the unsatisfactory termination to the Shrews- 

 bury-Lonsdale match. Through the past winter 

 the possible time in which each competitor would 

 be able to accomplish the distance has been a topic 

 of increasing interest, and now that Lord Shrewsbury 

 has withdrawn from the contest at the eleventh 

 hour, the public will feel that they have been 

 deprived of a long-standing promised performance. 



" The origin of the match has now become a 

 matter of history, so that a full account is rendered 

 unnecessary. A conversation amongst a shooting 

 party assembled at Ingestre last November, com- 

 mencing on the merits of trotting versus galloping, 

 gradually led up to the wager of the nominal sum 

 of £ioo being made between Lord Shrewsbury and 

 Lord Lonsdale. The course was to be twenty 

 miles, equally divided between the four different 

 styles of driving, viz., four-in-hand, pair, single and 

 postilion. Mr. Arthur Coventry was appointed 

 referee, and each competitor was to drive his own 

 team. After several roads had been discussed, 

 Lord Lonsdale chose a fairly level stretch on the 

 Great North Road, while Lord Shrewsbury's choice 

 was a road on the borders of Sussex, close to where 

 his horses were being trained. The referee, probably 

 thinking that either was good enough, decided for 

 the latter, as being the nearer to London. Lord 

 Shrewsbury seems to have been in a strange state 



