io THE TURF 



became very common in England ; and the 

 first public race meetings appear at Gar- 

 terley, in Yorkshire ; Croydon, in Surrey ; 

 and Theobald's, on Enfield Chace; the 

 prize being a golden bell. The art of train- 

 ing also may be said now to have com- 

 menced j strict attention was paid to the 

 food and exercise of the horses, but the 

 effect of weight was not taken into con- 

 sideration, ten stone being generally, we 

 have reason to believe, both the maximum 

 and minimum of what the horses carried. 

 James patronised racing; he gave five 

 hundred pounds a vast price in those days 

 for an Arabian, which, according to the 

 Duke of Newcastle, was of little value, 

 having been beaten easily by our native 

 horses. Prince Henry had a strong attach- 

 ment to racing as well as hunting, but he 

 was cut off at an early age. Charles i. 

 was well inclined towards such sports, and 

 excelled in horsemanship, but the distrac- 

 tions of his reign prevented his following 

 these peaceful pastimes. According to 

 Boucher, however, in his Survey of the Town 

 of Stamford, the first valuable public prize 

 was run for at that place in Charles the 



