SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



the tackle-maker of Sprouston, with the result 

 that on the following day it provided the canon 

 with one of the best day's trout-fishing he ever 

 enjoyed, filling not only a most capacious creel, 

 but his pockets to repletion. In those days a 

 sort of informal club or Tabaks-Parlemmt of the 

 notables of Sprouston used to meet every night at 

 Wright's shop, and on the occasion in question 

 the chief topic of conversation was of course 

 Canon Greenwell's great catch. To mark so 

 auspicious a day the canon had presented the 



assembly with a bottle of whisky, and in acknow- 

 ledging his generosity, a hope was expressed that 

 he would step down and name the new fly. 

 This he kindly did, but pointed out on arrival 

 that he could not be at once parent and sponsor, 

 a piece of ' epeescopal ' reasoning that only the 

 schoolmaster was capable of appreciating. He 

 however, rose to the occasion, and bidding the 

 company charge their glasses, asked them to 

 drink success to ' Greenwell's Glory,' by which 

 name the fly has ever since been known. 



HORSE-RACING 



It is certainly curious that so little attention 

 appears to have been paid to systematic racing in a 

 county that has always been devoted to sport, and 

 where certain districts have for centuries been 

 noted horse-breeding centres. But legitimate 

 race meetings have always been scarce, and no 

 flat-race meetings under Jockey Club rules have 

 existed in the county since the abolition of 

 Durham races in 1887. Whether this be a 

 subject for congratulation or not must be left to 

 the reader's opinion, but it is certainly remark- 

 able in view of the pitman's love for horse-racing 

 and betting. How far this may have been due 

 in the past to ecclesiastical influence is largely a 

 matter of conjecture, but that the Bishop of 

 Durham was a power to be reckoned with as late 

 as the end of the seventeenth century is shown 

 by the following extract by Surtees : 



January, 1 690. At the Quarter Sessions at Durham 

 the justices resolved to give their wages ' towards pro- 

 curing a plate or plates to be run for on Durham moor, 

 and Mr. Mayor, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions 

 was desired to communicate the same resolution to the 

 Bishop of Durham. Signed by Geo. Morland, and 9 

 others. 



Unfortunately the historian omits to give the 

 bishop's reply. 



Nor is the above the earliest record of 

 public races in the county, for which we are 

 again indebted to Surtees : 



1613. Thomas Robson and John Bainbigge, 

 Gents, bound themselves (to Sir George Selby and 

 Sir Charles Wren) in a recognizance of a hundred 

 marks to provide a piece of gold and silver plate in the 

 form of a bowl or cup to be run for yearly at the now 

 usual weighing place on Woodham Moor on Tuesday 

 before Palm Sunday. 



Although this is the first mention of recognized 

 racing in the Palatinate, it would appear from the 

 italicized words that Woodham had been already 

 selected as a suitable place for the purpose. How 

 long it continued to be so cannot be traced, but 

 in 1619 James I journeying to Scotland, stopped 



1 From this it would appear that in those days 

 the magistracy did not merit the title of the Great 

 Unpaid. 



at Durham on Easter Eve, and on the following 

 Monday ' rode to see a horse-race on Woodham 

 Moor, and returned to Durham.' * 



Another reference by Surtees to racing is of a 

 less agreeable character, though probably the 

 incident was not an uncommon one in turf his- 

 tory in those days : 



Dec. 4, 1636. John Trollop the younger, of 

 Thornley, county of Durham, in a sudden quarrel at 

 a horse-race fought with William Selby of Newcastle, 

 at White Hall Dike Nook, and slew him on the spot. 

 Trollop immediately fled, and was outlawed at the 

 Assizes at Durham, 7 August, 1637. 



Races were also held at Bishop Auckland. 

 Thus in 1662 we find that Mr. Arden, house- 

 steward to Bishop Cosin, writing to Mr. Staple- 

 ton, the bishop's land agent, on business, inter- 

 polates this little bit of gossip : 



Auckland, March 3. This day wee have horse- 

 races heare on Hunwicke Moore. Mr. Davison has 

 a little nagg runs with the like of Captain Darcy's. 

 Mr. Bricknell rides Mr. Davison's nagg. There will 

 be much company there. Our Ladys goe in my 

 Lord's coache from heare. 



From this it would seem that the races had 

 the ecclesiastical patronage, while the concluding 

 paragraph makes it clear that the bishop's lady 

 had nothing in common with Mrs. Proudic of 

 Barchester fame. 



Yet it is probable that the neighbourhood of 

 Bishop Auckland can claim far greater antiquity 

 in this respect, for it is maintained by Thomas 

 Knight, the local historian, of Byers Green, that 

 the Romans had a race-course at Binchcster 

 Binovium midway between Auckland and 

 Spennymoor, to which he makes the following 

 reference : 



Near to this village Byers Green is also a manifest 

 Roman circus, all good ground and two miles in com- 

 p.vs ; which, as being in the neighbourhood of the 

 camp, is supposed to be that of Albinus, his principal 

 camp being at Achnum, now Auckland, and the un- 

 doubted Binovium of Ptolemy. This (circus) I pro- 

 cured to be restored in the year 1778 by a subscription 

 of the neighbouring gentlemen, and it is judged to be 

 the finest piece of race-ground in the north of England.' 



' Surtees. 



1 Thomas Knight, Tht Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon. 



417 



53 



