1773 FIKST PERIOD 9 



courtiers, comrades, rivals in horsemanship (for 

 Charles himself, as well as his son, the unfortunate 

 Monmouth, would 'perform in the pigskin'), and boon 

 companions, were members, and to which he entrusted 

 the keeping of that once famous ' Challenge Whip ' (if, 

 indeed, he had anything at all to do with it, which is 

 extremely doubtful), formerly so coveted and now so 

 neglected. Not, of course, that there had been any 

 titular Jockey Club in those rollicking days, else the 

 name could scarcely have failed to be recorded over 

 and over again in the pages of Pepys and Evelyn ; but 

 it seems reasonable to assume that there had been an 

 untitular society of the kind, so that traditions of a 

 governing body, with the King for president or patron, 

 and with nobles and gentles for constituents, would 

 be lingering among the frequenters of Newmarket in 

 the latter years of George the Second's reign, when 

 the want of kingly patronage and authority at New- 

 market would very naturally suggest to the founders 

 of the Jockey Club the idea of establishing themselves 

 in the place left vacant, with a royal duke, at least, 

 if they could not have a king, at their head. There 

 is sufficient evidence that Charles the Second would 

 not only run but ride his horses in matches, and 

 would decide disputes referred to him, either on his 

 own authority or with the assistance of such a person- 

 age as the Hon. Bernard Howard (ancestor, it is said, 

 of the present Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire), who 

 has the reputation of having been the ' Admiral Kous ' 



