HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 25 



the Stud Book by the names of Darcy's White and Yellow 

 Turks, and the well-known Tregonwell Frampton. 



Of most of these patriarchs of the turf little is known 

 beyond the benefit they conferred upon this country by the 

 importation of Eastern horses, and testing the value of their 

 produce by public racing. 



Tregonwell Frampton, Esq., of Moreton, Dorsetshire, was 

 keeper of the running-horses at Newmarket to their Majesties 

 William III,, Queen Anne, George I., and George II. He was 

 styled for a great number of years ' the Father of the Turf/ 

 died on March 12, 1727, aged 86, and was buried at New- 

 market. 



This extraordinary character was born in the reign of King 

 Charles I., when the sport of horse-racing commenced at 

 Newmarket. He was owner of the celebrated horse Dragon, 

 who ran several times there with great success \ but the account 

 of it, and also that of his pedigree, have been for many years 

 lost. 



The most remarkable event supposed to have occurred in 

 the lives of this gentleman and of his horse Dragon is very 

 pathetically depicted by Dr. John Hawkesworth, in No. 37 of 

 the * Adventurer,' in the following words, supposed to be spoken 

 by the horse in the Elysium of beasts and birds : 



It is true (replied the steed) I was a favourite ; but what avails 

 it to be a favourite of caprice, avarice, barbarity ? My tyrant was 

 a wretch who had gained a considerable fortune by play, but more 

 particularly by racing. I had won him many large sums ; but 

 being at length excepted out of every match, as having no equal, 

 he regarded even my excellence with malignity, when it was 

 no longer subservient to his interest. Yet I still lived in ease and 

 plenty, and as he was able to sell even my pleasures though my 

 labour was become useless, I had a seraglio in which there was a 

 perpetual succession of new beauties. At last, however, another 

 competitor appeared. I enjoyed a new triumph by anticipation. 

 I rushed into the field panting for conquest ; and the first heat I 

 put my master in possession of the stakes, which amounted to ten 

 thousand pounds. 



