88 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



Bridge, may be soothed when they see the Chester- 

 ford line rank with grass and weeds ; but this is the 

 only " pull " they have. Time, that gentle innovator, 

 has silently done his work in Newmarket, and in some 

 respects, not for the better. The outline of the Club 

 buildings is the same, but the greater part of the 

 Palace has been pulled down, sold, or converted into 

 shops, and the late Duke of Rutland was its latest 

 race-occupant. " Queen Jamie " had first built it for 

 a hunting residence, and in 1647 the Koundhead sen- 

 tinels hummed a surly hymn at its portals as they 

 kept watch and ward for a fortnight over their captive 

 King. Under their grim hospices the cockpit, in 

 which James had so often delighted, quickly became 

 desolate ; but cocking from ten till dinner-time, races 

 from three to six, and then to the cockpit again, was 

 the summer order of the Merrie Monarch's Newmar- 

 ket day. His time was divided between Windsor, 

 Newmarket, and Winchester, and when nothing but a 

 few blackened walls remained of the much-loved 

 racing seat, his autumns were principally spent in 

 hunting excursions in the New Forest. These royal 

 visits to Winchester, on the site of whose ancient 

 castle he laid the foundation of a palace, which Sir 

 Christopher Wren had designed partly after the model 

 of Versailles, did not lack his wonted retinue, who 

 broke the stillness of the grey cathedral cloisters 

 with their glee songs and their dances. The Duchess 

 of Portsmouth, his most favoured mistress, furnished 

 out of hand a house for herself; but Nell Gwynne 

 had reason to sigh for her snug Newmarket " Nun- 

 nery"' beneath whose roof Frank Butler died, and 

 which was said to be connected in old times with the 

 Palace by a subterranean passage. When the 

 " Harbinger/' whose duty it was to provide lodgings 

 in a royal progress, arrived at Winchester, he marked 

 the prebendal house of Dr. Ken for Nelly's residence ; 

 but that dauntless King's chaplain refused her ad- 

 mittance, and she was forced to seek lodgings else- 



