Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/194

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Skates.
151

and private schools. The pupils at the Burnley Grammar-School do not confine themselves to five players on one side. That party which succeeds in keeping up the ball for the longest space of time wins the game. The factory operatives are also very fond of the game, the cotton-mills affording sufficient blank wall space for the purpose.




PRISON BARS.

This game is much practised in East Lancashire. It is quite a favourite play with schoolboys; and they perform it exactly as laid down by Strutt in his "Sports and Pastimes," p. 79, Tegg's edition.




QUOITS AND BOWLS.

These are still favourites with most classes, and ample scope is afforded for both plays at most of our watering-places on the western coast. "Bowling-greens" are very common. A quoiting-ground forms an appendage to almost every cricket-field in East Lancashire.




SKATES.

A peculiar form of skates is used in some parts of Lancashire. A long piece of iron is made smooth at the bottom edge; the back and front are then made sharp, and are turned up at right angles to the flat edge. When these points are driven into the soles of the skater's shoes or clogs, he is fully equipped.