105 



queathed in his will thirteen hundred guineas, to be run for, as plates 

 or prizes, in thirteen different places appointed by the crown, each 

 Horse to carry the weight of twelve stones four-mile heats. Some 

 gentleman of that time, might probably talk of such a bequest, but 

 no proof of its being carried into effect, ever existed ; on the contrary, 

 the disbursements for all the royal plates, it is said, are to be regularly 

 traced in the registers of the Lord Chamberlain, of the King's Master 

 of the Horse, and at the Jewel Office. 



. With respect to the idea of breeding horses fine or slender, with the 

 view of having them more speedy on that account, a notion often pro- 

 pagated, it can proceed only from those who have no sort of acquaint- 

 ance with the business of the turf; and the supposition has arisen 

 merely from the general comparative fineness of the southern Horse. 

 No breeder of Racers, I believe, does, or ever did, aim at breeding 

 slender stock, but invariably the contrary; nor are speed and slenderness 

 necessarily connected in the Racers, for it often happens, perhaps 

 somewhat more than often, that the largest and heaviest Horses have 

 most speed, and the lightest and finest the most stoutness. Nor do I 

 apprehend, that any regulation of the weights to be carried by Race- 

 horses, has ever had the smallest effect on the breeder's plan, who have 

 invariably aimed, and independently of any such stimulus, to obtain 

 large-sized colts. It might very well happen in the times of which 

 we now speak, and it has often happened since, to the mortification 

 and disappointment of the breeders, that much of their racing-stock, 

 particularly the fillies, have proved light and with too little bone, and 

 as they cannot be all expected to race, those turned out of training 

 were almost worthless, as unfit for any useful purpose. I have not 

 heard, that the public were generally in distress for Horses of the use- 

 ful kind, and under the necessity of putting up with the slender refuse 

 of the turf, in Queen Anne's reign ; but I do believe that the few 

 scientific breeders, then as now, would breed none but Racers, leaving 

 the propagation of the common species in general to those, the weight 

 of whose knowledge of what they were about, did not much oppress 

 their brains. 



1 am uninformed, whether his Majesty King George the First took 



p any 



