1G05.] SIR RICHARD GROSVEXOR, JUNIOR. 337 



times try the speed of their horses, and venture no small 

 sums thereupon.' With the puritanic habits and opinions of 

 the Commonwealth, all such amusements were discontinued ; 

 but within the first year of the restoration, a notification 

 appears in the public prints, from the Earl of Derby, describ- 

 ing a course of four miles long in the neighbourhood of 

 Liverpool, as well suited to the sport, and inviting persons 

 to send their horses to it. This is believed to have been the 

 Leasowe course. . . . 



" The castle is supposed to have been erected by the Earl 

 of Derby, of Queen Elizabeth's time — who was the great 

 proprietor and lord of the manor of the parishes of Wallacy 

 and Bidstone — for the express purpose of witnessing the 

 sport. Its form, an octagon with turrets on the alternate 

 faces, and windows on every side of the building, was favour- 

 able for commanding a view of the course in every direction. 

 At that time it stood above the level grass sward extending 

 for two miles on either side of it. It is not known what 

 other gentleman's racecourse existed before King James' reign, 

 in whose time Newmarket first came into vogue. ... A cup 

 was very early introduced as the prize for which gentlemen 

 sportsmen contended, and there is a very interesting example 

 of one as early as the seventeenth century, in the possession 

 of Mr. Curtis, of Liverpool." 



We can find no direct reference relating to the 

 presence of James I. at any race-meeting in Cheshire, 

 or the adjoining counties ; nevertheless he may have 

 attended at some such improvised race, as depicted in 

 the Leasowe picture, during his return from Scotland 

 throuo^h Cheshire. As the kingf and court were enter- 

 tained at Farndon by Richard Grosvenor, junior,* whom 

 he knighted there, August 17, 1617, it is very likely this 

 was the locality and the occasion of the curious artistic 



* In the lifetime of his father, Sir Richard Grosvenor. 

 VOL. I. Z 



