KEFLECTIONS ON SPORT WITH THE PACK. 247 



to see the last Royal Plate run for at Ascot during her reign. 

 We are unable to give the faintest description of this meeting, 

 nevertheless we may be sure it proved a merry reunion to 

 those who were so fortunate to participate in the sport. An 

 autumn meeting was announced to take place at Ascot on 

 October 20, when the Windsor Town Plate of 20 guineas, 

 open to any horse, mare, or gelding, carrying 10 stone, that 

 never won 30^. in plate or money. The result of this race 

 has not been recorded in the annals of the turf. The Queen 

 and Court were at Windsor Castle at this time, but we have 

 no information whether or not the event in question had been 

 honoured by the presence of royalty. 



1714. — The last Queen's Plate of 100 guineas given by 

 Queen Anne to be run for at Ascot was announced to take 

 place on Friday, August 13, 1714, under the same articles 

 as obtained there during the three preceding years. The 50 

 Guinea Plate was to be run for on Monday, the 16th. But 

 good Queen Anne died on August 1, 1714, consequently these 

 proposed races at Ascot were postponed. The meeting was 

 eventually abandoned, and we hear nothing further of " Royal 

 Ascot " for some years to come. 



It has been truly said that Queen Anne " was every inch 

 a sportsman." During her youth, and in those happy days 

 when the Duke of York, her father, allocated his spare time 

 to the pleasures of the chase, both she and her elder sister 

 became proficient riders to hounds on the spacious downs and 

 in the sylvan groves which extended from historic Winton tc 

 the New Forest. In those happy hunting fields, and subse- 

 quently at Windsor and Richmond, the two young princesses 

 were " well entered " in all the arts and mysteries of the chase, 

 under the supervision of their Royal father, than whom a 

 more competent mentor could not be found for that particular 

 purpose. During the time when the hunting establishment 

 of Charles II. was under a cloud (through financial and other 

 circumstances), that of the Duke of York was in the most 

 flourishing condition. Indeed, if one could get at the records 



