He says that a country fellow who wins a competition is usually likely to win a mistress at the same time, and 'nothing is more usual than for a nimble-footed wench to get a husband at the same time she wins a smock.' A smock, or, as another writer says,'a she-shirt,' was the regular prize for women at these rustic sports, and a hat for men, so that the pot-hunters and pot-huntresses of the day had less temptation to turn their prizes into money than comes to the winners of the silver and plated trophies of the present day.

Bath, however, was not the chief place in the West of England remarkable for its athletic meetings. Strutt, who wrote in 1801, gives an account of two important annual gatherings in the West Country, one on the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire, and the other upon Holgaver Moor, near Bodmin in Cornwall. To the first he says that 'prodigious multitudes constantly resorted. Robert Dover, an attorney of Barton-on-the-Heath, in the county of Worcester, was forty years the chief director of these pastimes. They consisted of wrestling, cudgel-playing, leaping, pitching the bar, throwing the sledge, tossing the pike, with various other feats of strength and activity. Captain Dovej received permission from James I. to hold these sports, and he appeared at their celebration in the very clothes which that monarch had formerly worn, but with much more dignity in his air and aspect.' 'I do not mean to say,' he goes on, 'that the Cotswold games were invented or even first established by Captain Dover: on the contrary, they seem to be of much higher origin.' Strutt then shows by a quotation from Heath's description of Cornwall, published in 1750, that a meeting of a similar nature was held near Bodmin. 'The sports and pastimes here held,' says Heath, 'were so well liked by Charles II. when he touched here on his way to Sicily, that he became a brother of the jovial society.

The custom of keeping this carnival is said to be as old as the Saxons.'

There can be no question that the connection between fair and wakes and athletic sports was kept up well into the present century, and indeed in some out-of-the-way corners of England has lasted almost to the present time. But as the fairs decayed in importance, owing to improved facilities for travelling and trading, so did the glory of these popular athletic meetings depart with them. Still, side by side with the growing and flourishing profession of pedestrianism in the towns, these rustic sports kept their place, until finally, when the great athletic movement of recent years swept over the country, it renovated and rehabilitated these annual gatherings. The paper from which we have just quoted in the 'Spectator' gives a very minute account of the one at Bath at the beginning of the eighteenth century. There is abundant evidence that their character did not substantially alter, although they undoubtedly diminished in number and importance. In the first volume of Hone's 'Everyday Book' there is a communication from 'Mr. Carter, the antiquary,' describing the great 'May fair' held in the fields near Piccadilly at the end of the eighteenth century.

The builder has covered the fields of Mayfair long since, and only the name survives to show what vulgar sports were held in that now fashionable quarter. There were shows of jugglers, a booth for boxers, another booth for cudgel-players, a ring for fire-eaters, etc. 'The sports not under cover,' says Mr. Carter, who had been an eyewitness, 'were ass-racing, grinning for a hat, running for a shift, and an infinite variety of other similar pastimes.' Another correspondent of Hone's gives a similar account of Avingham fair in the North Country. After the dancing was over, the sports began in the presence of the mayor. Amongst the contests were 'foot-racing for hats, handkerchiefs, and she-shirts. The several races run, and the prizes distributed, they return to the last and gayest of their mirthful scenes, viz. evening dancing and drinking, finally departing "fu' blythe that night."' In the same book there is a long account of 'Hungerford revel' in Wiltshire. The chief amusement at this festival was, of course, the cudgel-play which 'Tom Brown' has so well described for us.

Besides this, however, the festival included in 1826 the following programme: (1) Girls running for smocks; (2) Climbing the greasy pole for bacon; (3) Old women drinking hot tea for snuff; (4) Grinning through horse-collars; (5) Racing between old women for a pound of tea; (6) Hunting a pig with a soaped tail; (7) Jumping in sacks for a cheese; (8) Donkey racing. There was another revel, called the 'Beppard revel,' earlier in the year, and the 'Reading Mercury' of May 24, 1819, has an advertisement of the sports, promising eighteenpence to every man who breaks a head at cudgel-play, and a shilling to every man who has his head broke. One of the most interesting communications in the 'Everyday Book' has reference to the North. A writer in 1826 regrets that in most of the great Northern towns the 'wakes' are dying out, 'although still held annually in nearly all the parochial villages of the North and Midlands.' The writer says, however, that in Sheffield (as we should naturally expect of this great home of pedestrianism) the 'wake' was still kept up. 'At Little Sheffield and in Broad-lane the zest of the annual festivity is heightened by ass-races, foot-races (masculine) for a hat, foot-races (feminine) for a chemise, and grinning matches.' Perhaps the most interesting extract from Hone to an athlete is his account of the 'Necton Guild' in Norfolk, which was undoubtedly the first English athletic club.

In 1817, Major Mason, of Necton, in Norfolk, determined to organise the local 'wake' into a regular athletic meeting. He allowed no stalls, stands, or booths for variety entertainments. Proceedings commenced with a procession headed by the 'Mayor of the Guild,' and a circle was formed round a maypole. Then began the sports, which were as follows: - (1) Wrestling; (2) Foot-races; (3) Tingling matches; (4) Jumping in sacks; (5) Wheelbarrow-races blindfold; (6) Spinning matches; (7) Whistling matches; (8) Grinning matches; (9) Jumping matches. After the presentation of the prizes, the nature of which is not described, the dancing began, the strictest order and decorum being preserved by the beadles and other officers of the guild. This annual meeting, which commenced in 1819, was still being held in 1826, but we can find no further trace of its history. 'Numerous, respectable, and fashionable companies' generally attended the meetings of the Necton Guild, which appear to have been universally approved.

Major Mason, of Necton, certainly deserves a niche in the temple of athletic fame for his institution of the guild.