Football is a game as old as the hills, and there are hundreds of clubs in the town and district, the best meadow for the purpose (at the Lower Grounds) being about 125 yards long by 75 yards broad.  The Aston Villa is the chief club.

Hare and Hounds.—­Every suburb and district has its club of Harriers or Hare and Hounds, an annual cross-country amateur championship contest being started in 1879.  At the last (Feb. 9, 1884) the Birchfield Harriers scored their fourth victory against the Moseley Harriers twice.

Hunting.—­Time was when the sight of scarlet coats and hounds was no novelty in Birmingham, but those who would now join in the old English sport of hunting must go farther afield, the nearest kennels being at Atherstone.  The announcements of the meets in this and adjoining counties appear regularly in the Midland Counties’ Herald.

Jumping.—­At the Lower Grounds in July, 1881, Mr. P. Davine, of Belfast, jumped 6ft. 3in. the highest previous record having been 6ft. 2-1/2in., the performance of Mr. M.J.  Brookes, (Oxford U.A.C.) at Lillie Bridge, March, 1874.

Lacrosse, a popular Canadian game, was introduced here June 23, 1883, by a team of Canadian Amateurs and Iroquois Indians, who exhibited their prowess at the Lower Grounds.

Lawn Tennis, at first known as Lawn Racquet, was the invention of the late Major Gem, who played the first game in 1865 with 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.