OF FARRIER V. 



Mo 



ing: the mares thus procured, and also many 

 of tlieir produce, have been styled Royal 

 Mares. Dodsvvorth, though foaled in England, 

 was a natural Barb. His dam, a Barb mare, 

 was imported at this period, and was called a 

 royal mare. She was sold by the Studmaster, 

 after the King's death, for forty guineas, when 

 twenty years old, in fual (by the Helmsley 

 Turk) with Vixen, dam of the Old Child Mare. 

 Dodsworth covered several well-bred mares, 

 as appears by various pedigrees. 



At this time, too, the prizes run for became 

 more valuable : instead of bells, pieces of plate 

 were substituted, as bowls, cups, &c., usually 

 estimated at one hundred guineas each ; and 

 upon trophies of victory, the exploits and 

 pedigrees of the successful Horses were most 

 commonly engraved, whence, perhaps, much 

 curious information might be obtained. 



During this reign Plates of different value 

 were given in various parts of the country, 

 and which were generally advertised in the 

 London Gazette. 



William tlie Third frequently visited New- 

 market ; and Queen Anne kept race-horses, 

 and entered them in her own name. Her 

 Majesty's brown Horse, Star, won a plate at 

 York, July 30, J 714, at four four mile heats, 

 the Friday preceding her death, which oc- 

 curred on Sunday, August 1. George the 

 First (1720) discontinued the Cups, and or- 

 dered One Hundred Guineas in specie to be 

 paid to the successful competitor. 



We have given the early history of the 

 Course, sufficient to shew those who were 

 unacquainted with its commencement, who 

 were its supporters in its infancy, and by what 

 progressions it arrived to the state of receiv- 

 ing the King's Plate. 



We now come to the still more impertant 

 part of this work, by selecting those Sires of 

 the Turf, from whom our racing blood has 

 derived its celebrity. We shall, however, be- 

 fore speaking of these individual Horses sepa- 

 rately, say something of the Racer generally. 



The race-horse, like the game-cock, the 

 bull-dog, and the pugilist, are England's pe- 

 culiar productions, unequalled for high cou- 

 rage, stoutness of heart, and patience under 

 suffering. Now prize-fighting, cock-fighting, 

 and bull-baiting, being out of fashion, it be- 

 comes a question with us, whether these dis- 

 tinctions will be allowed us after the next fifty 

 years. We care not much about it, if even 

 these distinctions should leave us ; not that we 

 are indifferent to the hardiness of our animals, 

 whether biped, or quadruped; but it cannot 

 be a question but this very hardiness has been 

 productive of great cruelty. We recollect, 

 early in youth being taken to a place in Staf- 

 fordshire, to see, as a curiosity, a bear-bait. 

 On arriving at the house where the bear was 

 kept, we were invited in, and much to our 

 astonishment, lay a bear and a bull-dog, cheek 

 by jowl, before the fire. The man enquired 

 if we had brought any dogs with us. On 

 being answered in the negative, he said it was 

 all one, he would find a dog. Poor Bruin m as 

 brought to the stake, and his late seeming 

 friend, and companion, vvas led to some dis- 

 tance from the bear, and set at him. The dog- 

 attacked his old friend with all that deter- 

 termined ferocity belonging to his instinct, and 

 pinned the bear. On remonstrating on the 

 rruelty of the treachery of suffering the bear 

 to be attacked by her late seeming friend and 

 companion (for the bear seemed to make little 

 or no resistance, as if she had confidence in 

 the dog's not hurting her) and allowing the 

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