20 HISTORY OF THE 



and even in the very suburbs, a certain plain 

 field, such both in reality and name, Smithfield, 

 from a Saxon word, smith, signifying smooth. 

 Thither come, either to look or to buy, a great 

 number of persons resident in the city — earls, 

 barons, knights, and a swarm of citizens. When 

 a race is to be run by this sort of horses,^ and 

 perhaps by other, which also in their kind 

 are strong and fleet, a shout is immediately 

 raised, and the common horses are ordered to 

 withdraw out of the way. Three jockies, some- 

 times only two, according as the match is made, 

 prepare themselves for the contest, (such as 

 being used to ride know how to manage horses 

 with judgment.) The grand point is to prevent 

 a competitor from getting before them. The 

 horses, on their part, are not without emulation. 

 They tremble, are impatient, continually in mo- 

 tion, and at last, the signal once given, they 

 strike, devour the course, hurrying along with 

 unremitting velocity ; the jockies inspired with 

 the thoughts of applause, and in the hopes of 

 victory, clap spurs to the willing horses, bran- 

 dish their whips, and cheer them with their 

 cries. You would think, according to Heraclitus, 

 that all things were in motion, and that the 



* He refers to what, in a previous passage, he denominates 

 the more vahiable hackneys and charging steeds. 



