10 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1750- 



of that distant period. And so it would happen that 

 to ride their own or one another's or anybody's horses 

 would be one of the new Club's main purposes. This 

 is the more notable and curious because the Club sub- 

 sequently found it advisable to discourage the practice, 

 and to confine the riding in public races to professional 

 jockeys as far as possible. This too, no doubt, gave 

 rise to the conjecture (for it is apparently no more 

 than conjecture) that the Club originally had a 

 special costume (like that of the Bibury Club), which 

 included 'boots and spurs.' Not even the stewards 

 nowadays seem to adopt any distinguishing dress, 

 though some years ago, if memory may be trusted, 

 they would wear a cut-away brown coat with gilt and 

 * lettered ' buttons, a distinction which probably all 

 the members were entitled to sport if they pleased. 

 It has been surmised that this coat suggested that of 

 the ' Pickwick Club,' in that famous work which, it is 

 well known, was intended originally to be of the 

 sporting order. 



However that may be, it has been shown that the 

 Club was started, or, at any rate, first made itself 

 evident, about 1750, and that by 1753 it was in 

 activity at Newmarket. 



Let us now see what manner of men its earliest 

 members were, so far as we can discover, and what 

 were the objects which they seem to have had in view 

 (for by their works ye shall know them), that we may 

 form an opinion how far they may be considered to 



