98 



of the metropolis, where the King and his court frequently attended. 

 Newmarket was not yet the theatre of any regular racing, although 

 it had been for centuries esteemed and frequented, as one of the most 

 favourite spots in England for hunting and hawking. 



How far the science of Turf manege, arrangement and wagering, 

 may have been understood and practised by individuals, previously to 

 this period, is uncertain; but we know that it then became general, and 

 accompanied with almost every circumstance of technical accuracy. 

 Pedigrees were recorded and produced to enhance the reputation 

 and worth of" those Horses, which were . descended from progeni- 

 tors of known goodness, although it is not probable, that such a race 

 as we now esteem the only thorough breed, could, at so early a period, 

 have been obtained. Perhaps, any well-shaped, blood-like, and active 

 Horses were then received as legitimate racers. The training discipline, 

 'in all its variety of regular food, clothing, physic, airings, gallops and 

 sweats, were in full use, and indeed, always overdone. The weights 

 were adjusted which the Race-horses had to carry, and the most usual 

 weight was ten stone. Classical learning having long prevailed, the 

 science of pedigrees, and the regulated practice of the course, had be- 

 come familiar with Greek and Roman literature; but much has been 

 superadded by English ingenuity ; England is indeed the mother 

 country of modern Olympics. 



The first Arabian which had ever been known as such, in England, 

 was purchased by the royal jockey, of a Mr. Markham, a merchant, 

 at the price of five hundred pounds. That illustrious master of the 

 science of equitation, the Duke of Newcastle, in his treatise, describes 

 this Arab as a little bay Horse, of ordinary shape, and judges he was 

 good for nothing, because being trained and started, he could not race, 

 but was beaten by every Horse which ran against him ; whence his 

 Grace found an additional argument against the truth of these stories, 

 so often propagated, of the vast powers of the Arabian Horses. In all 

 this, Berenger backs his Grace ; but, ' the gunner to his linstock,'— both 

 the noble Duke and Berenger, although excellent riding-masters, were 

 infiirior jockies, and unaware, that it is not the forte of the southern 

 Horse to run himself, but to get runners: nevertheless, the Horse in 



question 



