Turf History, 3 



are those between General Chasse and Inheritor at 

 Ayr, and Lanercost and Beeswing, twice in one after- 

 noon, at Kelso. Still, even then the plaided and 

 snooded spectators were anything but demonstrative : 

 the real current of their sporting being sets towards 

 " A Graham " and the slips, and Philip, Chanticleer, 

 and Zohrab sink into historical insignificance by 

 the side of Waterloo, Gilbertfield, and Hughie Gra- 

 ham. 



Seven or eight of the English counties seem to care 

 as little about race-horses as they do for griffins ; 

 and perhaps the most genuine Olympic taste is to be 

 found among the quoit-loving Cumbrians, in whose 

 Carlisle race-festivals wrestling plays a very promi- 

 nent part. Although their style is so widely diffe- 

 rent to that of the Cornish men, who still hurl their 

 traditionary scorn at Devonshire, in the ballad, which 

 tells that 



" Abraham Cann is not the man 

 To wrestle with Polkinghome ;" 



they are not one whit less enthusiastic in the praises 

 of Weightman, Chapman, Jackson of Kinneyside, 

 and the other " Belted Wills " of their ring ; and, in 

 fact, it is only when the afternoon is pretty far spent, 

 and his enraptured backers have borne off the prize- 

 belted victor to the booth which he specially deigns 

 to honour, that the starting-bell tinkles out its sum- 

 mons. The Northumbrian " black diamonds " have 

 always enjoyed most being above ground, in a clean 

 face and shirt, when X. Y. Z., Beeswing, or some other 

 local star, required the stimulus of their gruff voices 

 '* in t'coop ; " and it would have been as judicious a 

 step to abuse Edwin Forrest's acting before a " Bow- 

 ery boy," as to breathe a word against " t'ould mare's" 

 fame, when one of them was within earshot. The 

 crowd which attends Manchester Races is something 

 past belief ; but they seem to go much more because 

 it is the conventional mode of passing the Whitsun- 



B 2 



