SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



cation for the remarks of Burton * that ' horse 

 races are the desports of great men, and good 

 in themselves, though many gentlemen by such 

 means gallop themselves out of their fortunes.' 

 One brilliant exception to this reflection is 

 furnished by the squire of Ewanrigg Hall, 

 who, though he engaged in all kinds of gam- 

 ing, was sharp enough not only to keep the 

 lands he had inherited, but to make ample 

 provision for his family and to depart this life 

 without an enemy. Strange and piquant is 

 the description Sandford gives of him : ' Mr. 

 Joseph Thwaits in my time one of the wit- 

 tiest brave monsirs for all gentill gallantry, 

 hounds, hawkes, horse courses, bowles, bowes 

 and arrowes, and all games whatsoever play 

 his 100 at cards, dice and shovelboord if you 

 please, and had not above 200 a year : yet 

 he left his children pretty porcions and dyed 

 beloved of all parties.' * 



Whatever may be said of the popularity of 

 other kinds of amusement, the racecourse was 

 an institution that flourished in Cumberland 

 towards the close of the Stuart period. In 

 a manuscript history of the county, now in 

 possession of the Earl of Lonsdale, written by 

 Thomas Denton in the years 1687-8, several 

 racecourses, at that time in high favour, have 

 been noted by him as existing in the various 

 parishes of his perambulation. Besides those 

 already mentioned, he states that the sandy 

 plain near the town of Drigg was converted 

 into a horse course by Sir William Pennington, 

 and a plate of the value of 10 was run for 

 yearly in May. Vestiges of this ancient course 

 can still be traced in that locality. A little 

 above the village of Whitrig to the west there 

 stands a high round hill called Carmot, from 

 which, he says, you can see all the country 

 round, at the foot of which began a horse 

 course which ended upon the top of Mootha, 

 the ascent of which being so great a climb 

 that they called that part of the hill 'Trotter,' 

 in regard that few horses could gallop to the 

 top of it, but were forced to trot ere they 



1 Anatomy ofMelancholy, pt. z, sec. i, cap. iv. ed. 

 1660. Henry Curwcn, who was sheriff in 1688, 

 went by the name of 'Galloping Harry,' owing to 

 his partiality to racing transactions. It is said 

 that he wasted much of the property of his family 

 in this way. 



2 A Cursory Relation of all the Antiquities and 

 Familycs in Cumber/and, circa 1675, p. 22. 

 Compare the quatrain of Tom Duri'ey, a con- 

 temporary poet, usually but unjustly called ' the 

 Moore of the Restoration ' 



' Another makes racing a trade, 



And dreams of his prospects to come ; 

 And many a crimp match he made, 

 By bubbing another man's groom.' 



come to the top. Denton has also noted race- 

 courses on Harethwaite Common and Wood- 

 cock Hill, in the parish of Westward ; on the 

 sands of Skinburness ; on Low Planes and 

 Barrock Fell, in the parish of Hesket-in-the- 

 Forest. At the latter place the course circled 

 round the fell, and measured four and a quar- 

 ter miles. 3 In addition to these, Machell, 

 who was a contemporary of Denton, mentions 

 'a brave horse rase along the seaside at Par- 

 ton,' near Whitehaven. 



This catalogue of racecourses can scarcely 

 be considered exhaustive, though it appears 

 appalling enough when compared with our 

 notions of sporting matters and the number 

 of race meetings which occur in our day. As 

 it only represents the customary centres where 

 horse matches took place, 4 it may well be said 

 that racing had reached its climax at this 

 period. During the latter portion of the 

 seventeenth century ' Langanby ' held its 

 own as the county racecourse, though the 

 courses at Workington 6 and Burgh-by-Sands 

 were fast rivalling it in popularity. At this 

 period we meet with a strange custom in con- 

 nection with horse racing. It was not enough 

 for the local sportsmen to patronize 'the turf 

 in their private capacities, but they did not 

 deem it inappropriate to import racing into 

 the concerns of their public life. In fact, 

 arrangements for the next horse race became 

 a recognized part of the business transacted 

 by the justices in Quarter Sessions. As the 

 records of the sessional proceedings are of un- 

 doubted interest, and appear to be unique in 

 the annals of sport, the extracts may be repro- 

 duced from the manuscript volumes in the 

 custody of the clerk of the peace of the 

 county, with the dates and places of the 



3 Thomas Denton, 'A Perambulation of Cum- 

 berland and Westmorland, written in the years 

 1687 and 1688,' MS. ff. 20, 53, 59, 65, 99. 



4 At this period the popular appetite was not 

 satisfied with regular meetings. There are on 

 record various challenges for private trials of 

 horseflesh, as ambition or envy prompted the 

 ' turfites ' of the day. Among the manuscripts 

 of Mr. Geo. Browne of Troutbeck there is a very 

 curious agreement, dated 30 May, 1692, between 

 a Cumberland gentleman and a Westmorland yeo- 

 man as to a race to be run by their respective 

 mares in the demesne of Calgarth for the sum of 

 zo (Browne MSS. vol. ii. f. 199). 



5 These races took place on a piece of extra- 

 parochial ground, near Workington, called ' The 

 Cloffock,' which is still used for sports of a 

 different kind. It is situated on the north side 

 of the town, between the river Derwent and a 

 small rivulet, which completely surrounds it. 

 Races were held in this course within living 

 memory. 



443 



