Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/202

 concussion of the brain.—Procter's "Our Turf, Stage, and Ring."

Several years ago the races were transferred to the present ground at Old Trafford.

FOOT-RACES BY NUDE MEN. in Notes and Queries says:—"During the summer of 1824 I remember seeing at Whitworth in Lancashire [a hamlet in the parish, and three miles north of the town of Rochdale], two races, at different periods, of this description. On one occasion two men ran on Whitworth Moor, with only a small cloth or belt round the loins. On the other occasion the runners were six in number, stark naked, the distance being seven miles, or seven times round the moor. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of spectators, men and women, and it did not appear to shock them, as being anything out of the ordinary course of things. It is with reference to this usage, no doubt, that the Lancashire riddle says—

The answer is—The twenty-four spokes of a wheel."

Races by nude men are not yet extinct in many parts of Lancashire, notwithstanding the vigilance of the county police.

 SCHOOL HOLIDAYS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. frequently hear that, in the eighteenth century, old customs, festivals, and holidays were much more—much better, as some would say—observed than at present. In some articles of agreement, made in December 1790,