his friend Mr.
Perera. of Great Charles Street.

_Pedestrianism_.--Among the earlist noted achievements of local peds. is
that of George Guest, who having wagered to walk 1,000 miles in 28 days
finished his task Feb. 1, 1758, with five hours to spare, doing six
miles in the last hour he footed it.--Mr. E.P. Weston, the walker _par
excellence_, was at Bingley Hall in April, 1876, and at the Lower
Grounds in Jan., 1884, when on his walk of 5,000 miles in 100 days.--A
six days "go-as-you please" match came off at Bingley Hall in Sept.,
1882, and a ridiculous exhibition of a similar nature occurred in the
following year, when women were induced to walk for the sport of gaping
idiots.

_Pigeon-flying_ has been for several generations the favourite amusement
of numbers of our workers, and the flyers have a club of their own,
which dates from August, 1875.

_Pigeon-shooting_ is a cruel sport, not much favoured in this locality,
and now that a cheap clay pigeon has been invented for use in this game,
instead of the live birds, it is to be hoped that the disgraceful
practice will be confined to the Hurlingham boys.

_Prize-fighting_ was long the popular sport of high and low life
blackguards, and Birmingham added many a redoubtable name to the long
list of famous prize-fighters, whose deeds are recorded in "Fistiana"
and other chronicles of the ring. Among the most conspicuous of these
men of might, were Harry Preston, Davy Davis, Phil Sampson, Topper
Brown, Johnny and Harry Broome, Ben Caunt, Sam Simmonds, Bob Brettle,
Tass Parker, Joe Nolan, Peter Morris, Hammer Lane, and his brothers,
with a host of other upholders of fisticuffs, the record of whose
battles will _not_ be handed down to posterity in the pages of
_Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham_, though, as a matter of history, it
may be noted that the earliest account we have of a local prize-fight is
of that which took place in Oct. 1782, for 100 guineas a side, between
Jemmy Sargent, a professional, and Isaac Perrins, one of the Soho
workmen. Jemmy knuckled under after being knocked down thirteen times,
in as many rounds, by the knock-kneed hammerman fiom Soho, whose mates,
it is said, won L1,500 in bets through his prowess. Attempts have lately
been made to revive the old sport, but the sooner the would-be adepts
learn that their occupation is gone the better it will be for them, and
all men.

_Racing and Steeplechasing_ was not, unknown to the Brums of the 18th