NeivmarJcet. 77 



and William III.,* and George lY. and his racing scrapes, 

 with the Jockey Club and the ChifFneys ; and Osbaldeston's 

 great two hundred miles match, accomplished in something 

 more than eight hours and a half — the wager being that 

 with the pick of fifty horses he did not ride two hundred 

 miles in ten hours ; and Admiral Eous, the prince of fair 

 play ; and old rinj scenes connected with Six Mile Bottom 

 and Milden Hall, and prize-fighters training on the heath. 

 Why, a man who trained on that heath ought to be able to 

 fio^ht a threshinoj machine and lick it. Hundreds of men 

 and things of the past are seen through the curtain of 

 time. 



Oh, the joy of the elbow-room — which enables one to walk 

 about and look at everybody and everything — not forgetting 

 the trainers' wives and daughters in their broughams and 

 family phaetons, and ladies on splendid horses, w'ho ride 

 about without fear of having their ears shocked by oaths 



* [a. D. 1698.] "The ambassador [Tallard, the French ambas- 

 sador] was graciously received at Kensington, and was invited to 

 accompany William to Newmarket, where the largest and most 

 splendid spring meeting ever known was about to a'^semble. The 

 attraction must be supposed to have been great, for the risks of the 

 journey were not trifling. The peace had, all over Europe, and 

 nowhere more than in England, turned many old soldiers into 



marauders. 



****** 



Nowhere does the peril seem to have been so great as on the New- 

 market Road. There indeed robbery was organised on a f-cale un- 

 paralleled since the days of Robin Hood and Little John. A fraternity 

 of plunderers, thirty in number, squatted near Waltham Cross, under 

 the shades of Epping Forest, and built themselves hu*s, from which 

 they salliei forth with sword and pistol to bid passengers stand. 

 The King and Tallard were doubtless too well attended to be in 

 jeopardy. But soon after they passed the dangerous spot there was 

 a fight on the highway attended with loss of life." — Loed Macau- 

 lay's History. 



