21^8 DISSERTATION ON THE 



As old Neftor defcribes the meta of the curfus on the 

 plains before Troy. 



From the very (late and form of this hippodrome, or 

 curfus, my conje6lure, as to the manner in which the 

 race was performed, is confirmed in faift. Here we fee 

 that the chariots fet out from the career, on the right 

 (or northward) of the goal, and ran to the weft end j 

 whence, wheeling to the left round the metse, they re- 

 turned again eaftward and muft pafs again to the north- 

 ward, or left of the goal, keeping it on their right in 

 their coming in to the career, at the end of the race, as 

 I have before explained the race mentioned in Sophocles. 



Doctor Stukely, not adverting to this route of the 

 race, but feeing that it muft end to the northward of 

 the goal, at the eaft end, has been led to imagine, con- 

 trary to the fad of conftant practice, that the chariots ran 

 from the eaft along the fouthern fide, and then wheel- 

 ing to the right, north about the meta^, returned on the 

 north fide, and fo ended to the northward of the goal. 

 But the explanation which I have given is agreeable to 

 pracflice, and confirmed by this exifting fadl. 



The hyppodromes, or curfus, were called, in the 

 language of the country, rhedagua ; the racer rhe- 

 dagwr, and the carriage, as we find, rheda. 



One of thefe hippodromes, about half a mile to the 

 louthward of Leicefter, retains ftill, under the various 

 corruption of fpeaking and writing, the old name 



Rhedagua ', in the corrupted one Rawdikes, 



6 Dodor 



