i6 



upon by unprincipled persons, who would 

 demand horses from them without tender- 

 ing payment, on the false plea that they 

 were royal messengers journeying in haste 

 on business of the State. Not infrequently, 

 too, the hirer or borrower was none other 

 than a horse-thief, who rode the animal 

 into some remote country town, and sold 

 him to whoever would buy. Richard II.'s 

 Act of 1396, aimed at suppression of these 

 practices, laying penalties upon anyone found 

 guilty of them ; and it further called upon 

 the hackneymen to help themselves by 

 placing a distinctive mark on their horses. 

 Any animal bearing such a mark might be 

 seized by the hackneyman if he found it 

 in possession of another, and no compensa- 

 tion could be claimed by the person from 

 whose custody it was taken. 



The earliest account of a race that we 

 can trace (apart from the sports at Smith- 

 field) refers to the year 1377, the first of 

 Richard's reign. In that year the King 

 and the Earl of Arundel rode a race* (par- 

 ticulars of conditions, distance, weights, &c., 

 are wanting !), which it would seem was 

 won by the Earl, since the King purchased 



* " The History of Newmarket." By T. P. Hore. 

 (3 vols.) H. Baily & Co. London, 1886. 



