By his will of 1638 Sir Dudley Digges left twenty pounds a year from about forty acres near Faversham, known as the Running Lands, to be run for every 19 May at Old Wives Lees in Chilham. Two young men and two young women ran heats there on 1 May, and as many again at Sheldwich Lees on the following Monday. The winners from each place then raced at Old Wives Lees on 19 May for the ten pounds, before a great crowd of gentry and neighbours. Brand counted it among the sports of May.
The Running Lands at Chilham
19 May · Old Wives Lees, Chilham, Kent
No longer kept
to be paid to two young men and two maids, who, on May 19th, yearly, should run a tye at Old Wives Lees in Chilham, and prevail
From Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, p. 220. Read the original
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