SOME ENGLISH COURSING CLUBS 221 



and recounting how the field costume of the club in 183 1-2 

 was a green-cloth frock-coat, drab vest, corduroy breeches, 

 and long leather boots coming well up on the leg. Mr. Brown 

 next consulted the files of several local papers, but his 

 investigations led to little or no result, and therefore he fell 

 back upon the conclusion that the Ridgway Club grew out of 

 the Southport Club, and that the latter was merged into the 

 former through the growing popularity of its president, Mr. 

 Thomas Ridgway, in whose honour a stake had been named 

 some ten years before the actual change of title took place. 



I believe that local testimony goes to favour the idea just 

 promulgated as to the Ridgway Club having sprung out of the 

 Southport, and it is certain that the meetings of the former 

 were held over the ground of the latter at no very far away 

 date ; indeed, the present ground at Lytham was not used 

 until 1845, and for twenty years after that date the meetings 

 were divided between the two places. Since 1865, the club 

 has been wholly indebted to the Clifton family for its leave, 

 and no better locale for the sport is to be found in all that 

 part of Lancashire, where, by the way, there is a meeting of 

 some sort at nearly every village. 



Leaving the historical epitome and treating of the asso- 

 ciation of the present day, Ridgway holds quite a unique 

 place amongst coursing clubs. The membership is almost 

 as select as Altcar, and there is a certain spirit of bonhomie 

 and good-fellowship in the Lytham gatherings, which is alto- 

 gether wanting in some more sedate and dignified institutions. 



The present membership of the club is fifty strong, and the 

 meetings held are two annually, one in the early days of 

 ' October, and the other in the first week of February. At the 

 first-named there are separate dog and bitch Produce Stakes, 

 Clifton Cup, Tenant Farmers' Cup, and sundry supplementary 

 stakes of minor importance ; and at the latter the United 

 Produce (North and South Lancashire) Stakes, Clifton Cup, 

 Lytham Cup, and Peel Stakes, a goodly programme, which 

 causes the running to extend over a third day. The ground 



