1773 FIEST PERIOD 7 



by a committee of noblemen and gentlemen.' But 

 the Jockey Club did not, either in the early days or 

 afterwards, meet always at the Star and Garter as 

 their head-quarters in London ; they met sometimes 

 at the Thatched House, sometimes at the Clarendon, 

 and for some years (even after Messrs. Weatherby 

 removed to Old Burlington Street, where the head- 

 quarters of the Club eventually became fixed) at what 

 was known as ' The Corner ' (Hyde Park), with a 

 coffee-room and a cook, it is said, provided by the 

 obliging Mr. Kichard Tattersall. They also, of course, 

 met, as they still meet, occasionally in one another's 

 houses. 



How the Club came to be founded, and at whose 

 initiative, is a mere matter of conjecture. One thing 

 only appears to be pretty certain. Unlike the French 

 Jockey Club (Societe d'Encouragement), they (thank 

 goodness) published no ' manifesto ' ; they (thank 

 goodness again) had no occasion (as the French had) 

 to complain of the sorry condition to which the native 

 breed of horses had been reduced ; and there is 

 nothing to show that they harboured the idea of 

 becoming legislators and reformers. The fact is that, 

 as we know from Walpole's ' Letters,' from Jesse's 

 * Selwyn,' and other similar or dissimilar sources, it 

 was an age of clubs, which were springing up like 

 mushrooms on ail sides. What more natural than 

 that the noblemen and gentlemen who frequented 

 Newmarket, where ruffians and blacklegs were wont 



