Mike Huggins.  ‘All the fun of the Fair - Kendal as the centre of Westmorland horse racing 1820-1834’. 

In the 1820s and 1830s there were around 130 British centres holding a single annual race meeting, usually of two or three days, including Richmond, Penrith, Carlisle, and Lancaster. Races like Kendal's usually had 5000+ attending which was way higher than Kendal's population. What were its many attractions, why did it start and why did it only last fifteen years?