“_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 conclude with baiting the bull, Fury, for a superior dog-chain. On Tuesday, the sports will be repeated; also on Wednesday, with the additional attraction of a smock race by ladies. A main of cocks to be fought on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for twenty guineas, and five guineas the byes, between the gentlemen of Manchester and Eccles; the wake to conclude with a fiddling match by all the fiddlers that attend for a piece of silver.”--Baines, _History of County of Lancaster_, 1836, vol. iii. p. 123. CHALK-BACK DAY. NORFOLK. At Diss, it is customary for the juvenile populace, on the Thursday before the third Friday in September (on which latter day a fair and session for hiring servants are held), to mark and disfigure each other’s dresses with white chalk, pleading a prescriptive right to be mischievous on “Chalk-Back Day.”--_N. & Q. 1st. S._ vol iv. p. 501. IRELAND. The following extract is taken from the _Leeds Mercury_, September 8th, 1863:--The triennial ceremony of “throwing the dart” in Cork Harbour was performed on Thursday afternoon by the mayor of that city. This is one of those quaint ceremonials by which, in olden time, municipal boundaries were preserved and corporate rights asserted. A similar civic pageant called “riding the fringes” (franchises) was formerly held by the lord mayor and corporation of Dublin, in which, after riding round the inland boundaries of the borough, the cavalcade halted at a point on the shore near Bullock, whence the lord mayor hurled a dart into the sea, the spot where it fell marking the limit of the maritime jurisdiction. At 2 o’clock, P.M., the members of the Cork town council embarked on board a steam-vessel, attended by all the civic officers, and the band of the Cork civil artillery. A number of ladies also attended. The steamer proceeded out to sea until she reached an imaginary line between Poor Head and Cork Head, which is supposed to be the maritime boundary of the borough. Here the mayor donned his official robes and proceeded, attended by the mace and sword bearer, the city treasurer, and the town clerk, all wearing their official costumes, to the prow of the vessel, whence he launched his javelin into the water, thereby asserting his authority as lord high admiral of the port. The event was celebrated by a banquet in the evening. SEPT. 4.] ST. CUTHBERT’S DAY. DURHAM.