SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



other survival of the ancient history of the 

 ' turf.' If ' Langanby ' moor afforded scope 

 for the exercise and amusement of the people 

 living in the country, Kingmoor was the 

 trysting place for the citizens of Carlisle. 

 The moor, an ancient estate of the Corpora- 

 tion situated on the north side of the river 

 Eden within easy distance of the city, has 

 been associated with racing transactions from 

 an early period. The chamberlains' accounts 

 in the city records contain various items of 

 money paid out for the purchase of prizes for 

 these races. Later the prizes were given by 

 the local members of Parliament, the guilds 

 from time to time voting or withholding a 

 plate when such a racing prize came into 

 fashion. One extract may be given in order 

 to indicate the favour in which horse races 

 were held by the commonalty of Carlisle in 

 the days of the first Stuart as well as the 

 nature of the prizes which may now be said 

 to be extinct. It is in the form of a request 

 made on 21 April, 1619, 'that Mr. Maior 

 and his breathren shall call for the silver broad 

 arrowes and the stock and the horse and nage 

 bells with all expedytion to be imployed for 

 manteyning of a horse race for the cytties 

 use upon the Kingesmoor at such tyme yearely 

 as they shall thinke convenient and to article 

 that the same cup shall be brought in yearley 

 as they shall thinke ffittinge.' * These ' horse 

 and nage bells,' still the property of the Cor- 

 poration of Carlisle, were exhibited before 

 the Archaeological Institute which met at 

 Carlisle in 1859, and were pronounced as 

 'possibly unique' in their catalogue to the 

 museum of antiquities collected together for 

 that occasion. They are globular in form 

 with slits at the bottom usual in bells of that 

 class. The largest, which is 2^ inches in 

 diameter, is of silver gilt, and bears on a band 

 round its centre the inscription 



+ THE SWEFTES + HORSE + THES + BEL + 



TO + TAK + FOR + MI + LADE + DAKER 



+ SAKE * 



The other bell, also of silver, is smaller in 

 size and bears the legend ' 1599, H.B.M.C.,' 

 being the initials of Henry Baines, mayor of 



1 Municipal Records of the City of Carlisle, pp. 

 277-8 et passim, ed. R. S. Ferguson and W. 

 Nanson (1887). 



8 This Lady Dacre has been identified with 

 Elizabeth, daughter of George Talbot, fourth Earl 

 of Shrewsbury, and wife of William, Lord Dacre of 

 Gillesland, who was governor of Carlisle early in 

 the reign of Queen Elizabeth. But the identifi- 

 cation is fanciful. The bell given by ' milade 

 Daker' cannot be of later date than the period in 



Carlisle, 1599. As racing bells they have 

 called forth a large amount of controversy 

 throughout the country, and various claims 

 have been made by other places that they 

 possessed sporting relics of greater rarity and 

 value. But the Carlisle bells still hold the 

 field as the oldest and most curious racing 

 prizes in existence. 3 Kingmoor shared the 

 honours with ' Langanby ' as the chief centres 

 where races were held in Cumberland for a 

 long period. 4 



question, though it may possibly be much earlier. 

 In 1585 Humfray Musgrave's horse 'Bay Sand- 

 forth ' ran and won all the three bells at a horse- 

 race at Liddesdale. Thomas Carlton came home 

 from the races and next day ' ranne the bell of the 

 Wainerigge ' (Cal. of Border Papers, i. 309). 



3 These bells have achieved considerable fame 

 since they were re-discovered in an old box in the 

 town clerk's office in Castle Street, Carlisle, about 

 twenty-five years ago. They were described by 

 the late Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt as ' unique ' in the 

 Art Journal, xix. 122, new series (April, 1880). 

 The executive committee of both the Sports and 

 Arts Exhibition and of the Tudor Exhibition, held 

 in London in 1890, applied to the Corporation of 

 Carlisle for the loan of these bells, and the Sports 

 and Arts being the first to apply got them. At 

 that exhibition the bells were displayed in a case 

 containing some huge pieces of racing plate, such 

 as the York Plate of 1717, the Newmarket Gold 

 Cup of 1705, the Newcastle Cups of 1819 and 

 1823 and others. At that time they attracted 

 much attention, and were engraved in several 

 London papers. In a short time a rival to ' the 

 horse and nage bells ' of Carlisle appeared in the 

 shape of a bell said to have been presented by 

 William the Lion to the borough of Lanark in 

 1 1 60. But the experts soon detected on this bell 

 the mark of a seventeenth century silversmith, 

 Robert Dennistoun of Edinburgh, so that it is 

 probably not much older than 1628. The bell 

 was not an uncommon prize either in horse racing 

 or cockfighting, and was held by the victor as 

 challenge cups and shields are at the present day, 

 from one year to another, or from one race to 

 another. To win this bell was considered a mark 

 of honour, and gave rise to the popular expression 

 of ' to bear away the bell.' At York the racing 

 prize in 1607 was a small golden bell, and the 

 Corporation records of Chester about 1600 show 

 that in that city a silver bell was given to be raced 

 for on the Roodee, but it is not known whether 

 these trophies are now in existence (Cripps, Old 

 English Plate, pp. 143, 339, 4th ed. ; Art Journal, 

 April, 1880 ; Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, pp. 41-2). 



* In the eighteenth century racing on Kingmoor 

 began to decline. In the early portion of the 

 century the Corporation let large areas of the moor 

 to various people on leases for lives, and their 

 descendants at the close of the century claimed the 

 right to enfranchise on easy terms. In pursuance 

 of these claims the racecourse was enclosed. In 



II 



441 



