In 1667 the Sands were the scene of that
desperate duel with swords between William Douglas
younger, of M'hittingham, and Sir John Home, of
Eccles, attended by the Master of Ramsay and
Douglas of Spott, who all engaged together. Sir
James was slain, a d William Douglas had his
head stricken from his body at the Cross three
days after.
For many generations the chief place for horseracing
in Scotland was the long stretch of bare
sand at Leith,
LEITH LINKS.
informer for the double thereof, half to him and
half to the poor '' (Glendoick).
In 1620 there were horse-races at Paisley, the
details of which are given in the MaitZand MisceZZany,
in which the temporary prize of the bell
figures prominently; and after the Restoration there
were horse-races every Saturday at Leith, which
are regularly detailed in the little print called the
Mermrills Caledoniu. In the March of 1661 it
states :-" Our accustomed recreations on the
Sands of Leith was (sic) much injured because of
As a popular amusement horse-racing was practised
at an early period in Scotland. In 1552
there was a race annually at Haddhgton, the prize
being a bell, and hence the phrase to "bear away
the bell ; * and during the reign of James VI. races
were held at Peebles and Dumfries-at the latter
place in 1575, between Scots and'English, when
the Regent Morton held his court there; but as
such meetings led to conflicts with deadly weapons,
they were interdicted by the Privy Council in 1608 ;
and by an Act of James VI., passed in his twentythiid
Parliament, any sum won upon a horse-race
above a hundred marks was to be given to the
poot. Magistrates were empowered to pursue '' for
the said surplus gain, or else declared liable to the
a furious storm of wind, accompanied with a thick
snow ; yet we had some noble gamesters that were
so constant in their sport as would not forbear a
designed horse-match. It was a providence the
wind was from the sea, otherwise they had run a
hazard either of drowning or splitting upon Inchkeith.
This tempest was nothing inferior to that
which was lately in Caithness, when a bark of fifty
tons was blown five furlongs into the land, and
would have gone farther if it had not been arrested
by the steepness of a large promontory."
The old races at Leith seem to have been
conducted with all the spirit of the modem Jockey
Club, and a great impetus was given to them by
the occasional presence of the Duke of Albany,
