The Hopping Match, on Clapham Common, Jackson the runner exhibiting his agility

This print appeared in Pierce Egan's 'anecdotes (original and selected) of the turf, the chase, the ring, and the stage :the whole forming a complete panorama of the sporting world, uniting with it a book of reference and entertaining companion to the lovers of British sport.' The drawings were produced by Theodore Lane but owe a great deal to the influence of Robert Cruikshank. Lane died aged 28 a couple of years later by falling through a skylight thus ending a very successful partnership with Egan.

Egan was a journalist and this book originally produced in serial form in 1825-6 contains a mixture of sporting stories, racing, boxing, sailing, rowing, fishing, interspersed with theatrical news and gossip and obituaries.Usually very irrevernt they were extremely popular for their view on early eighteenth-century society.