don on horseback, between his brothers, the Dukes of York and Gloucester, attended by a splendid cavalcade.

James I.

1602.-If we find racing languishing in the former reign, it would seem but to have laid by, to start up with increased vigour in this, from which we may safely date the foundation of our present system. This king gave £500 to Mr. Markham for an Arabian ;— probably the first Arabian introduced into this country. The Duke of Newcastle, who wrote in the reign of Charles II, and whose work we shall presently notice, mentions the Markham Arabian as a little bay horse, not well shaped, and as having been beaten in every race he ran. From this we learn that even at this period the English had attained some progress in the swiftness of their race horses.

A south eastern horse, called the white Turk, was imported about the same period by Mr. Place, afterwards stud-master to Oliver Cromwell, who purchased it.

In this reign, races were run for silver bells, at Gatherly in Yorkshire, Croydon, Chester, and Theobalds, on Enfield chase, and the food, physic, exercise, sweats and weight (which was usually ten stone) began to be rigidly attended to. The following ceremony is mentioned by

the elder* Randel Holme, the Chester antiquary, as having been performed according to custom near that city, in the presence of the mayor, at the Cross, in the Rodhi, or Roody, an open place near the city. A silver bell, valued at about three shillings and sixpence, is placed on the point of a lance, to be given to him who shall run the best and furthest on horseback before them on Shrove Tuesday. These bells went by the name of St. George's bells, and the younger Randel Holme tells us that in the last year of this reign (1624) John Brereton, innkeeper, Mayor of Chester, first caused the horses entered for this race, then called St. George's race, to start from the point beyond the new tower, and appointed them to run five times round the Roody; and, he continues, he who won the last course or trayne, received the bell, of a good value, £8 or £10, and to have it for ever, which moneyes were collected of the citizens for that purpose. By the use of the term, for ever, it would appear that the bell had been formerly used as a mark of temporary distinction only, by the successful horsemen, and afterwards returned to the Corporation.

* Randel Holme of Chester, one of the city heralds, M.S. Harl. 2150, fol. 235.

Bassompierre, a French writer, mentions that in this reign, the merit of the English horses began to be so evident, that many were purchased and sent into France, where they continue to be much valued and admired. It would also appear that towards the conclusion of this reign, the English method of keeping and managing horses, horses, was thought so judicious that France, and other neighbouring countries, thought proper to adopt it, and no doubt by this judicious treatment the foundation was laid for that celebrity of the British race horse, which so soon followed the introduction of Eastern blood.

Charles I. 1625.-The first races which were held at Newmarket, took place in this reign, in the year 1640, although the round course was not made till 1666; and as a further proof of the rapid progress already made in the improvement of the national breed of horses, we find one Sir Edward Harwood ignorantly complaining of what he calls the scarcity of able horses in the kingdom, there not being so many as 2,000 that were equal to a like number of French horses; the cause of which he supposes to be the strong addiction which the nation had to racing and hunting horses, which, for the sake of swiftness, were all of a lighter and

VOL. I.

D

weaker mould. We may here remark, as highly probable, that the invention of gunpowder and the general use of fire-arms, which caused heavy armour to be disused, did much towards effecting this change, by bringing lighter and fleeter horses into general demand. Butcher,* a writer of this period informs us, in his Survey of Stamford, that a race was annually run for in that town, for a silver and gilt cup with a cover, of the value of £7 or £8, provided by the care of the alderman for the time being, out of the interest of a stock formerly made by the nobility and gentry in the neighbourhood.

The following lines are from an old ballad in D'Urfey's collection of songs, and supposed to have been written in this reign. It is called "Newmarket," and plainly shows not only that that place was then famous for the exhibition of horse races, but that they were not always conducted with the strictest integrity :

"Let cullies that lose at a race,
Go venture at hazard to win;
Or he that is bubbl'd at dice,
Recover at cocking again.

Butcher's Survey of the Town of Stamford, first printed A.D. 1646. chap. 10.

+ Pills to purge Melancholy, 4th edition, A.D. 1719, vol. 2, page 83.

BRITISH TURF.

Let jades that are foundered, be bought;
Let jockies play crimp to make sport;
Another makes racing a trade,

And dreams of his projects to come,
And many a crimp match has made

By bubbing another man's groom."

35

In a farce, or interlude, played in the same reign, (1641) entitled "the Merry Beggars, or the Jovial Crew," we find races alluded to in Hyde Park; but as this is the only mention of them we find, we are inclined to think that they were never of much importance.

Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, touches on the expense attending these pursuits, in a passage which seems to imply that much money was ventured on races. He observes, " riding of great horses, running at rings, tilts and tournaments, horse races, and wild goose chases,† which are disports of greater men, and good in themselves, though many gentlemen by such means, gallop themselves out of their fortunes."

As a proof of the attention of this monarch to equestrian exercises, he issued a general order in the commencement of his reign, directing the

• Bribing.

↑ These we imagine to have been what are now called steeple chases, and if so is the earliest mention of them we find.