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only for speed, and were of" too light and weak a mould for the military 

 service. As a remedy for this, he proposed to noblemen and gentle- 

 men, to change their stock, and instead of breeding for bells (the 

 turf) to keep stronger stallions, that the produce might be fit for war, 

 and which, with their riders, might be trained to military exercises. 

 There is a degree of plausibility in this advice, which has been often 

 since repeated, and on which a few remarks may be made by and by. 



Although the exhibitions of the Turf were suspended by the civil wars, 

 or indulged but in an occasional and inferior degree, and even an ordinary 

 war has ever something of that effect, the principle of racing retained 

 a strong hold on the minds of the English people, and breeding for the 

 Course proceeded to such an extent, as to raise a decent stock of Race- 

 horses for the ap[)roaching jubilee of the Restoration. Even the cant- 

 ing and hypocritical Cromwell could mix the cares of his salvation 

 with those of profane and Avorldly sports, and as well as his grooms, 

 jockies and whippers-in of the conventicle, had those of the breeding 

 stud! If he had Hugh Peters in one capacity, he had also Richard 

 Place in the other as his stud-master. Mr. Place was proprietor of 

 the famous white Turk, the sire of Wormwood and Commoner, and 

 of several capital brood mares, one of which, a great favourite, he 

 concealed in a vault, during the search after Cromwell's effects at the 

 Restoration, whence she afterwards took the name of the Coffin Mare, 

 and as such she stands in various pedigrees. 1 know of no pedigrees 

 traceable beyond Place's White Turk, and the Morocco Barb of the 

 Lord General Fairfax, unless amongst those engraved on the cups or 

 howls won in the following reign, some of which may be yet preserved 

 in our old racing families. 



Charles II. inherited all his grandfather's love for the turf, and as 

 his uncle and his father were strongly attached to the military manege, 

 and in that line, were the most skilful horsemen of their time, so 

 Charles was equally partial to the Course, and no less skilled as a 

 jockey. Indeed a contemporary French Traveller ( Monconny ) says, 

 that this king set no value whatever on managed Horses, and that 

 thence, his stables were fort mnlgarnies. The king had plainly one 

 hobby Horse, the traveller another. If we style James the father of 



the 



