THE TURF, 
horses it was the royal pleasure should be sent to 
Goodwood? "Send the whole squadron," said the 
King; "some of them, I suppose, will win."* 
Previously to 1753 there were only two meetings 
in the year at Newmarket f for the purpose of running 
horses, one in the spring, and another in October. At 
present there are seven, distinguished by the following 
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. The July, 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 permitting, 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 exception 
* It is proper to remark, that the withdrawing the royal stud was 
compensated by additional King's Plates, and by his Majesty's present 
to the Jockey Club of the splendid challenge-prize the Eclipse Foot, 
still in Mr. Batson's keeping. 
t Although other places claim precedence over Newmarket as the early 
scenes of public horse-racing, it is nevertheless the metropolis of the turf, 
and the only place in this island where there are more than two race- 
meetings in the year. It does not appear that races took place there pre- 
viously 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. 
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