SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



ventured to forecast the ' good sport ' that 

 was likely to be had at Workington in April, 

 1687, when seven horses were to run, 'one 

 of Sir John Lowther's, Mr. Curwen's, Mr. 

 Davison's, Mr. Lowther's, Charles Bannister's, 

 Jack Aglionby's, and one from Cockermouth.' * 

 Racing at Burgh was invested with a new 

 interest when the ' Barony Cup ' came to be 

 reckoned among the prizes for competition on 

 this course. The barony of that name passed 

 by purchase to the Lowther family in 1684,* 

 and soon after that date we find record of the 

 gift of this cup. It is said that it was originally 

 given by the lords of the barony ' upon their 

 respectively coming of age.' 3 But this is not 

 in accordance with more recent custom, for 

 during the nineteenth century it had been 

 always given shortly after a new lord succeeded 

 to the estates. Six of these cups are known 

 to be in existence at the present time. The 

 oldest, a cup of silver, inscribed with the 

 legend, 'The gift of the Right Honourable 

 Richard Lord Viscount Lonsdale, run for on 

 Burgh Marsh ye loth 8br. 1712,' is now in 

 possession of the representatives of the late 

 Mr. Oliphant Ferguson, Broadfield House, in 

 the parish of Dalston, having been won by 

 one of that gentleman's ancestors. We meet 

 with no other instance of the ' Barony cup ' 

 till 1 804, though it is very probable that other 

 cups may have been run for between 1712 

 and that date. 4 The first cup of the nine- 

 teenth century was won by a horse said to 

 have been purchased while drawing a coal 

 cart at Dearham. It is of massive silver 

 and bears the inscription ' Given by Willm. 

 Viscount Lowther to be run for on Thurs- 

 day, 3rd May, 1804, on Burgh Marsh. Won 



1 Rydal Hall MSS. pp. 92, 373 (Hist. MSS. 

 Com.). 



2 Thomas Demon, ' Perambulation of Cumber- 

 land,' MS. f. 70. 



3 Hutchinson, History of Cumberland, ii. 509, 

 Carlisle, 1794. 



* Among the muniments at Lowther there is an 

 undated petition to Sir James Lowther, baronet, 

 signed by twenty of ' the inhabitants of Brough 

 and the neighbouring towns,' asking him to post- 

 pone the races on the marsh till after harvest. 

 The petitioners 'apprehended that the races at this 

 season, being time of harvest, will be attended with 

 damages, the high tides having overflow'd and 

 sanded the low ground, and the numbers of cattle 

 being confined on the high ground, being the race 

 ground, and the number of people attending the 

 Races will in all probability make the cattle break 

 into the cornfields adjoining the Marsh.' Mr. 

 William Little, the earl of Lonsdale's agent, is of 

 opinion that ' the petition was probably presented 

 between 1757 when Sir James Lowther came of 

 age and 1784 when he was raised to the peerage.' 



by Mayson Hodgson's C. Mare.' This is the 

 veritable cup of which Anderson wrote : 



The cup was au siller, and letter'd reet neycely, 

 A feyne naig they've put on't, forby my Iword's 

 name. 



It is now in possession of Miss Ruth Blaylock, 

 Rindal House, Burgh-by-Sands, who inherited 

 it from Miss Hodgson, daughter of the 

 winner. It was not until forty-one years 

 afterwards that another ' Barony Cup ' was 

 run for. About twelve months after the 

 death of William, Earl of Lonsdale, the new 

 earl gave 'an elegant cup value fifty guineas 

 for horses foaled within the barony and the 

 bona fide property of a free or customary 

 tenant at the time of starting. Heats, one 

 mile and a quarter.' This event excited, say 

 the newspapers of that time, an extraordinary 

 and widespread interest. There was a general 

 holiday in Carlisle and it was estimated that 

 no fewer than 15,000 people were present at 

 the races on Burgh Marsh. While only four 

 horses competed in 1804, nine ran for the 

 cup in 1845. The prize was carried off by 

 Mr. Oliphant's ' Lady Eleanor ' in the final 

 heat by a couple of lengths. The cup is 

 inscribed : ' The gift of the Right Honour- 

 able William, Earl of Lonsdale, run for on 

 Burgh Marsh, April gth, 1845, and won by 

 George Henry Hewitt Oliphant's chestnut 

 mare ' Lady Eleanor.' This cup is also at 

 Broadfield House, the winner being the late 

 Mr. Oliphant Ferguson's father. Events of 

 the same nature took place in 1873 and 1876, 

 the winner in the former year being Major 

 Browne's horse, ' The Crow,' and in the 

 latter year the cup was won ' in a canter by 

 Lady Brown,' the property of Mr. R. Hodg- 

 son of Beaumont, in whose family it is still 

 preserved. Ten horses competed for the race 

 in 1876. The last 'Barony Cup' was run 

 for in 1883, when the present Earl of Lons- 

 dale succeeded to the title. In this year the 

 cup was changed for a shield valued at 100 

 guineas. The shield, of beautiful pattern and 

 embossed with sporting scenes, bears the in- 

 scription, 'The Burgh Barony Cup, the gift 

 of the Right Honourable Hugh Cecil, Earl of 

 Lonsdale, for horses, &c., the bona fide pro- 

 perty of free or customary tenants of or 

 resident in the barony. Won by Mr. Thomas 

 Robinson's Harmony.' It is now in the 

 possession of Mr. R. B. Hetherington of 

 Carlisle, and ' Harmony ' still browses on the 

 marsh at Burgh. It should be noticed that 

 the ' Barony Cup ' has no connection with 

 the race meetings annually held in that 

 parish. They take place on different courses, 

 the race for the cup being held on the marsh 



445 



