206 SPORTING STORIES 



These had been pillaged from wrecks, for the Manxmen 

 were inveterate wreckers. 



After the brig Lily and forty men were blown into frag- 

 ments on the 4th of December 1854 in the sound 

 between the Calf of Man and the mainland, I saw kegs 

 of powder drying before a turf fire in more than one 

 cottage ! With this powder and their percussion-guns, all 

 the riff-raff of the coast used to go gunning. 



They would lie about for ducks — track hares to their 

 formes in the snow and butcher them — mark down coveys 

 of partridges and massacre them sitting, with volleys. 

 Ground-game and partridges were almost annihilated. 

 The late Speaker of the House of Keys, however, — Sir John 

 Goldie Taubman, — at one time preserved Douglas Head 

 for coursing, and hares were pretty numerous there for a 

 while. But the poachers soon destroyed them, and I do 

 not remember that any other landowners attempted to pre- 

 serve game, probably because they felt that the poachers 

 were too strong for them. 



I have never seen larger hares than in the Isle of Man. 

 It was not uncommon to find them weighing 12 lbs., 

 and I once killed one which pulled the beam at over 13 lbs. 

 That hare is still talked about as "the big Bellamona 

 hare." 



But to racing men there is a peculiar interest attaching 

 to the Isle of Man, for it was there that the Derby Stakes 

 were first run for. The narrow strip of turf which separates 

 the bays of Castletown and Derby-haven was the scene, 

 and is still known as the "Race-course," though no races 

 have been held there for a hundred years, and the ground 

 is now converted into golf-links. It was in 162 1, when the 

 Earls of Derby were still lords of Man, that these races 

 were established ; and the Derby Plate, to which the Earl 

 contributed handsomely, was to be competed for every 

 year at Easter on the race-course at Castletown. The 

 present Derby Stakes, as everyone, I suppose, knows, were 

 founded by Edward Stanley, twelfth Earl of Derby, in 

 1780. 



The noble Earl who founded the Derby Stakes only won 

 them once, namely in 1787, with Sir Peter Teazle, named 



