Athletics and Football (extract)

ATHLETIC SPORTS IN ENGLAND 21 wefind a regular line of professional runners, some in and some out of service; and accounts of the most important matches between the more famous of them are to be gathered from manycontemporary records,while more occasionallyone hears of the amateurs—that is, of gentlemen who back themselves to run against time or against each other for a wager. From the ' Luttrell Papers' it appears that in 1690 'Mr. Peregrine Bertie, son to the late Earl of Lindsey, upon a wager, ran the Mall in St. James's Park eleven times in less than an hour.' In the same records for the year 1699 there are several curious entries. Mention is made of William Joyce, the Kentish strong man, who pulled over a dray-horse in a tug-of-war,and could lift 20cwt. He performed at the playhouse in Dorset Garden, the price of admission being, boxes io,y. and pit 5^., from whichhe must have amassedsomething considerable. Another entry is also remarkable: a 4 sporting man' wasfined 9/. 4^. for swearing in the space of five hours. This the writerseems to consider a ' record' in the way of swearing. One of the most graphic descriptions of a foot-racebetween two pedestrians, whowere also ' running footmen,' is given in the diaryof Sir Erasmus Phillips,who was an undergraduate at Oxfordin the year 1720. The extract (which we gather from a correspondent to ' Notes and Queries ') is as follows: ' Rode out toWoodstock: dined at the Bear (2^. (id). In the evening rode to WoodstockPark, where sawa foot-racebetween Groves (Duke of Wharton's running footman) and Phillips (Mr. Diston's). My namesakeran the four milesround the course in 18 min. and won the race, and thereby his master 1000/., the sum Groves and he started for. On this occasion there wasa most prodigiousconcourse of people.' The alleged time is, of course, absurd, and shows that the distance cannot have been the full four miles, or that there was some other error in calculation; but the concourseof people to such an exceedingly ' out of the way ' place as Woodstock is remarkableas showing the popular interest taken in the race. But beforewe settle down to give any chronological sketch