34 HISTORY OF THE 



weaker mould. We may here remark, as highly 

 probable, that the invention of gunpowder and 

 the general use of fire-arms, which caused heavy 

 armour to be disused, did much towards effecting 

 this change, by bringing lighter and fleeter horses 

 into general demand. Butcher,* a writer of this 

 period informs us, in his Survey of Stamford, that 

 a race was annually run for in that town, for a 

 silver and gilt cup with a cover, of the value of £7 

 or £8, provided by the care of the alderman for the 

 time being, out of the interest of a stock for- 

 merly made by the nobility and gentry in the 

 neighbourhood. 



The following lines are from an old ballad in 

 D'Urfey'sf collection of songs, and supposed to 

 have been written in this reign. It is called 

 '' Newmarket," and plainly shows not only that 

 that place was then famous for the exhibition 

 of horse races, but that they were not always 

 conducted with the strictest integrity : 



** Let cullies that lose at a race. 

 Go venture at hazard to win ; 

 Or he that is bubbl'd at dice, 

 Recovei at cocking again. 



* Butcher's Survey of the Town of Stamford, first printed A.D. 

 1646. chap. 10. 



t Pills to purge Melancholy, 4th edition, A.D. 1719, vol. 2, 

 page 83. 



