THE TURF 19 



terms : The Craven, in compliment to the 

 late Earl Craven, commencing on Easter 

 Monday, and instituted in 1771; the First 

 Spring, on the Monday fortnight following ; 

 the Second Spring, a fortnight after that, 

 and instituted 1753; tne J u ly> commonly 

 early in that month, instituted 1753; the 

 First October, on the first Monday in that 

 month ; the Second October, on the Monday 

 fortnight following, instituted 1762; and 

 the Third October, or Houghton, a fortnight 

 afterwards, instituted 1770. With the last- 

 mentioned meeting, which, weather permit- 

 ting, generally lasts a week, and at which 

 there is a great deal of racing, the sports of 

 the turf close for the year, with the excep- 

 tion of Tarporley, a very old hunt-meeting 

 in Cheshire, now nearly abandoned ; and 

 a Worcester autumn meeting, chiefly for 

 hunters and horses of the gentlemen and 

 farmers within the hunt. 



place in this island where there are more than two 

 race-meetings in the year. It does not appear that 

 races took place there previously to Charles the Second's 

 time ; but Simon d'Ewes, in his Journal, speaks of a 

 horse-race near Linton, Cambridgeshire, in the reign 

 of James I. , at which town most of the company slept 

 on the night of the race. 



