A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



was run in each day, these races being run in 

 heats. About 1805 races, instead of being run 

 in heats, as was the general rule, were mingled 

 with single races in equal proportion, but it was 

 not until 1849 ^^^^ '^^ running of races in 

 heats ceased.* In addition to the flat-race meet- 

 ings, steeplechases are held in Manchester, 

 Liverpool, and Haydock Park. 



Besides flat-racing and steeplechasing, trotting 

 meetings are also held in Lancashire at Liver- 

 pool, Wigan, Blackpool, and Manchester. 



The English trotting records were made for 

 the following distances on these tracks : i mile, 

 by Rowley, at Greenwich Park, Liverpool ; 

 2 miles, at the same place, on 20 March 1893 ; 

 4 miles, at Manchester Racecourse, on i June 

 1896; 6, 7, 8, 9, II, to 20 miles, by Lady 

 Combermere, on the Manchester Racecourse in 

 1894 and 1895. 



There were never more than two polo clubs 

 in Lancashire, and one of these has now joined 

 forces with a Cheshire club, and therefore lost 

 its identity. The Liverpool Polo Club, however, 

 still exists in a very flourishing condition, and is 

 the largest provincial club in England. This 

 club won the County Cup in 1891. 



Bowls is a game that is universally played in 

 Lancashire, and what some of the men who look 

 after the greens do not know about the game is 

 not worth knowing. The principal tournament 

 takes place at Blackpool every year. There is 

 also an association of amateurs, called the Lanca- 

 shire and Cheshire Association ; but this associa- 

 tion does not allow its members to play in the 

 Blackpool tournament. 



There is in the county only one tennis-court ; 

 it belongs to the Manchester Racquet and Tennis 

 Club, and many famous players have learnt 

 the game there. There is a Racquet Club at 

 Liverpool, where there are two excellent courts 

 and a squash racquet court ; and Rossall School 

 has also a racquet court. 



Wrestling has lost its popularity in the 

 county, and although local interest may be keen 

 in some places, yet the great meetings for 

 which the county was once famous no longer 

 take place. Its loss of popularity is most likely 

 due to the enormous interest now taken in 

 football. 



Cock-fighting, no longer legal as a sport, 

 was extremely popular in the olden days. The 

 strain of Lancashire cocks — notably those of the 

 former Earls of Derby — was noted throughout 

 the country, and the Lancashire feeders were 

 reckoned amongst the best. There were four 

 cock-pits in Liverpool, and the like number in 

 Manchester. As late as the year 1849 cock- 

 fighting was still a favourite sport of the Lanca- 

 shire colliers. Numerous cock-pits still remain 

 in the county, but they have fallen from their 



* W. Proctor, One Turf, One Stage, One Ring (iSSi). 



468 



high estate, and are now used for stores and 

 other purposes. 



Whippet-racing is most popular amongst the 

 working-men of Lancashire, and every Sunday, 

 near the large towns, the owners try their dogs 

 one against another. The whippet is very often 

 the chief bread-winner of the family. He must 

 accordingly be looked after properly, and, when 

 in course of training for a match he is getting 

 good food, his master's family often has to go 

 short. The chief value of a fast dog to his 

 owner is at the stud, the fees demanded being as 

 much, occasionally, as three guineas. Regular 

 whippet race-meetings are held at some of the 

 large towns, those of Oldham and St. Helens 

 being specially noted. 



Pigeon flying, or ' fleeing,' as the Lancashire 

 man terms it, is a favourite pastime,' and a very 

 pretty sight is often to be seen at the railway stations 

 in the north of England, when a hamper arrives 

 by train with a notice on it requesting that the 

 birds may be let loose at a certain time. When 

 this is done instantly the air is alive with perhaps 

 thirty or more pigeons, which, after circling 

 above the station for a few minutes, get the 

 bearing of their destination and set off in a 

 straight line for it. 



Lancashire had many quaint customs, and prob- 

 ably the 'wakes' and rush-bearings of various 

 towns were the most interesting. These ' wakes ' 

 are still kept up in the county, but the form they 

 take now is a week at the sea-side, and it is a 

 wonderful sight to see a place invaded by these 

 ' wakes.' Much good money is brought into the 

 town selected ; at the Oldham * wake ' in 1 906 

 no less than j^i 00,000 was taken into Blackpool. 

 These ' wakes ' in the olden days were accom- 

 panied by regularly organized sports, and the list 

 of the festivities was a long and varied one, as 

 may be seen by the following copy made from 

 one of the earliest posters known, which is 

 preserved in the Free Reference Library at 

 Manchester : — 



ECCLES WAKE 



Will be held on Monday, Tuesday, 30th & 31st 

 August, and Wednesday and Thursday, ist and 2nd 

 September, 18 19. 



On Monday the Ancient Sport of bull baiting 

 may be seen in its various evolutions. 



Same Day. 



A Dandy race for a purse of silver — the best of 

 heats, the second to be entitled to 5/. 



' This pastime seems to have been of an international 

 nature at one time, as we read {Sporting Magazine, 

 1824, p. 371) that in 1825 the Lord Mayor of 

 London was waited upon by a Frenchman, named 

 Keijeux, who presented a letter from the Amateurs 

 des Pigeons of Verviers, wherein they requested his 

 Lordship to let fly in the city thirty-two pigeons, 

 which Keijeux had brought with him. 



