BRITISH TURF. 35 



Let jades that are foundered, be bouglit ; 

 Let jockies play crimp to make sport ; 

 Another makes racing a trade. 

 And dreams of his projects to come. 

 And many a crimp match has made 

 By bubbing* another man's groom." 



In a farce, or interlude, played in the same 

 reign, (1641) entitled '' the Merry Beggars, or 

 the Jovial Crew," we find races alluded to in 

 Hyde Park ; but as this is the only mention of 

 them we find, we are inclined to think that 

 they were never of much importance. 



Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, 

 touches on the expense attending these pursuits, 

 in a passage which seems to imply that much mo- 

 ney was ventured on races. He observes, *' riding 

 of great horses, running at rings, tilts and tour- 

 naments, horse races, and wild goose chases,! 

 which are disports of greater men, and good in 

 themselves, though many gentlemen by such 

 means, gallop themselves out of their for- 

 tunes." 



As a proof of the attention of this monarch to 

 equestrian exercises, he issued a general order 

 in the commencement of his reign, directing the 



* Bribing. 



t These we imagine to have been what are now called steeple 

 chases, and if so is the earliest mention of them we find. 



D 2 



