RACING 



DESCRIPTIVE accounts of races until the nineteenth 

 century are curiously few. Their paucity is to be 

 regretted, for the occasional sidelights we obtain 

 from the old Calendars — Pond, Cheney, Heber, 

 and Tutting and Falconer — suggest that eighteenth-century 

 meetings were conducted in a happy-go-lucky fashion as 

 regards management, while the glimpses we get of racing and 

 its surroundings from other sources indicate the loss of a 

 peculiarly interesting chapter of English social life. The 

 crowd that lined the course in the days when four-mile heats 

 were started by beat of drum offered large possibilities to 

 the descriptive writer. 



In an earlier day ' crossing and jostling ' were recognised 

 methods of spoiling the chances of a competitor ; but by the 

 middle of the eighteenth century these heroic methods of race- 

 riding were falling into disuse on English courses. In 1751 

 the Articles relating to His Majesty's Plates included the 

 proviso that ' as many of the Riders as shall cross, jostle, or 

 strike or use any other foul play, shall be made incapable of 

 ever riding — for any of His Majesty's Plates hereafter.' The 

 Rules concerning Racing published in 1752 provide, it is true, 

 that ' Crossing and Jostling is allowed in matches if no agree- 

 ment to the contrary ' ; but from the absence of comment such 

 as would show that crossing and jostling were practised, it 

 would seem that an ' agreement to the contrary ' was usual 

 at this time. At the Epsom November meeting of 1769, 

 Mr. Bishop's Pancake beat Lord Milsington's Surry, ' but being 

 accused of crossing of Surry the match was given to Surry.' 

 These methods were continued in Ireland : at the Trim, 

 Co. Meath, meeting in March 1752, Messrs. Moore and Scott's 



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