Sept.] ECCLES WAKE. Lancashire.An annual festival used to be held at Eccles, of great antiquity, as old probably as the first erection of the church, called Eccles Wake, celebrated on the first Sunday in September, and was continued during the three succeeding days, and consisted of feasting upon a kind of local confectionery, called “Eccles Cakes,” and ale, with various sports. The following was the programme on such an occasion: “Eccles Wake.—On Monday morning, at eleven o’clock the sports will commence (the sports of Sunday being passed over in silence) with that most ancient, loyal, rational, constitutional and lawful diversion— “Bull Baiting—In all its primitive excellence, for which this place has been long noted. At one o’clock there will be a foot race; at two o’clock, a bull baiting for a horse collar; at four o’clock, donkey races for a pair of panniers; at five o’clock, a race for a stuff hat; the day’s sport to Ornamental line
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