A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



HORSE RACING 



Horse racing as a department of British 

 sport can be traced back in Cumberland to 

 the reign of Queen Elizabeth. From that 

 date there is evidence that the county was 

 not backward in this form of amusement. 

 At whatever date horse racing may have 

 been recognized as an institution elsewhere, it 

 must have been a popular pastime in Cumber- 

 land at the very earliest period of our sporting 

 history, for during the latter portion of the 

 sixteenth century there were two notable 

 racecourses in the county ' Langanby ' moor 

 for the people of the country, and Kingmoor 

 for the burghers of Carlisle. 



The moor of Langwathby, or as it is 

 traditionally known, ' Langanby,' in the 

 valley of the Eden, is the oldest and most 

 famous horse course of Cumberland and 

 Westmorland, rivalling Garterly in Yorkshire 

 as the historic racecourse of the northern 

 counties. 



If we believe the narrative of Edmund Sand- 

 ford, the jovial, inquisitive, gossiping squire of 

 Askham, a man who might have sat as model 

 for Addison's Will Wimble, fond of field 

 sports and acquainted with every stable and 

 cellar of note in the two counties, we can 

 put our finger on the date when racing at 

 ' Langanby ' had begun. The account is so 

 curious and so full of interest that it must be 

 given almost in his own language, specially as 

 it was 'writt about the year 1675," a period 

 of ultra-sporting notoriety. Writing of this 

 racecourse he says : ' The most famous horse 

 course ther for a free plate on midsomer day 

 yearly : and the first founder thereof, squire 

 Richard Sandford, younger brother of Thomas 

 Sandford of Askame in Westmorland, was 

 bred up with the Earl of Northumberland as 

 master of his horse and a brave horseman. 

 He persuaded the Lord Wharton and the 

 Chevileir Musgraves, who had a brave breed 

 of horses, and many of the country gentry to 

 contribute to a prize of plate of 20 yearly. 

 And it was the famous horse course of 

 England and Scotland. The quondam Duke 

 of Buckingham's horse called " Conqueror," 

 and the Earl of Morray's wily horse " Fox," 

 ran here for 100, but the "Conqueror" 

 conquered him and won the money. The 

 night before there was the terriblest blast ever 

 blown, churches, towers, trees, steeples and 

 houses all feeling the fury of the furies 

 thereof, for without peradventure the devil 

 was astir whether of England or Scotland he 



could not tell, but the English horse got the 

 prize.' l 



' Langanby ' was a famous horse course in 

 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and racing 

 possessed the same peculiarity then as it is 

 supposed to have now, that it outweighed 

 every other attraction. It has been pointed 

 out as a sign of the degeneracy of the time 

 that the great antiquary, Ralph Thoresby, 

 was unable to muster a quorum to transact 

 the business of a charity committee on 

 account of the absence of the neighbouring 

 gentry at a horse race. 2 But even a century 

 earlier, in 1585, we find in Cumberland a 

 justice of the peace refusing to meet the 

 queen's commissioners on public business on 

 account of his engagements at ' Langan- 

 by.' 3 



The date of the races over this course 

 varied from time to time. In 1585, Richard 

 Dudley's horse ran in April ; on 30 April, 

 1593, Lord Scrope, warden of the marches, 

 refused to give Bothwell an interview ' on 

 Langerbie moor at the horserace ' ; 4 in 1612 

 the date was Midsummer Day, when we know 

 that ' Langomby race ' was patronized by the 

 young bloods of the Howard family ; 6 on 

 27 May, 1663, Daniel Fleming of Rydal 

 spent 4*. 6d. at ' Langanby Moor horse race,' 

 and in two days afterwards he ' paid i os. 

 unto Mr. Layton as his subscription money 

 towards the plate.' 6 



But the racing annals of the county of 

 Cumberland are enriched by the possession 

 of relics in the shape of racing bells which 

 are unequalled in point of interest by any 



1 Edmund Sandford, A Cursory Relation of all 

 the Antiquities and Familyes in Cumberland, p. 43 : 

 Kendal, 1890. 



2 Diary of Ralph Thoresby, i. 1 29, 1 69 ; ii. 9, 

 ed. J. Hunter. 



8 Richard Dudley in a letter dated at Yanwith, 

 13 April, 1585, stated that he could not meet the 

 commissioners from Yorkshire concerning Rothay 

 Bridge on the 26th, for he had a horse to run 

 in the race at Langanbye (Rydall Hall MSS. p. 

 n, Hist. MSS. Com. I2th Report, Appendix, 

 part vii.). 



4 Calendar of Border Papers, i. 831, ed. J. 

 Bain. 



5 The Household Books of Lord William Howard 

 of Natvorth Castle, pp. 49, 51, 52, Surtees 

 Society. 



6 Rydal Hall MSS. p. 373, Hist. MSS. Com- 



440 



