THE TURF. 
horses, as well as to suppress low gambling, he made 
some good regulations for the suppression of pony 
races, and running for any sum under fifty pounds. 
In his reign the Godolphin Arabian appeared, the 
founder of our best blood the property of the then 
Earl of Godolphin.* George III., though not much 
a lover of the turf, gave it some encouragement as 
a national pastime ; in the fourth year of his reign 
Eclipse was foaled, and from that period may English 
racing be dated ! 
George IV. outstripped all his royal predecessors 
on the turf, in the ardour of his pursuit of it, and the 
magnificence of his racing establishment. Indeed, the 
epithet " delighting in horses," applied by Pindar to 
Hiero, might be applied to him, for no man could 
have been fonder of them than he was, and his judgment 
in everything relating to them was considered excellent. 
He was the breeder of several first-rate race-horses, 
amongst which was Whiskey, the sire of Eleanor (the 
only winner of the Derby and Oaks great stakes) ; and 
also Gustavus, who won the Derby for Mr. Hunter. 
Our present gracious monarch bred upon another 
* The reigns of King William, Queen Anne, and George I. and II., 
are remarkable in the annals of the turf, as having been the davs of the 
noted Tregonwell Frampton, Esq., a gentleman of family and fortune in 
the west of England, Master of the Horse during all the above-mentioned 
reigns ; who had a house at Newmarket ; was a heavy bettor ; and, if 
not belied, a great rogue. The horrible charge against him, however, 
respecting his qualifying his horse, Dragon, for the race, by a violent 
outrage upon humanity, and alluded to by Dr. Hawksworth in the 
" Elysium of Beasts," is supposed to be unfounded. 
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