ENGLISH EACEE.] 



THE HOESE, AXD 



[EXGttSH EACEU. 



Sir Thomas Chaloner, who wrote in the 

 early part of Elizabeth's reign, mentions 

 Henry YIII. as a great admirer of horses, 

 and of his having imported some from Turkey, 

 JSfiiples, Spain, and Elanders, to improve the 

 English breed. 



John Northbrook, a puritanical writer, in 

 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who, though 

 very severe against cards and dice, interludes, 

 and other idle pastimes, allows of horse- 

 racing— a proof that it was no uncommon 

 amusement at that time, when it was con- 

 sidered as a liberal sport, practised for 

 pleasure rather than profit, without the least 

 idea of reducing it to a system of gaming. It 

 is ranked witli hunting and hawking, and 

 opposed to dice and card-playing, by an old 

 Scotch poet, who laments that the latter had, 

 in a great measure, superseded the former; 

 and Conimenius, in 1590, says that tilting, or 

 the quintain, is used instead of horse-races, 

 which, he adds, are grown out of fashion. 



Before the reign of James I., trials of speed 

 were not practised, as at the present day ; nor 

 were any horses kept solely for the purpose of 

 running at stated seasons. It is, however, 

 certain that this comparative mode of ascer- 

 taining the goodness of horses, was not only, 

 previously to this period, known, but that 

 private matches were made between gentle- 

 men, who, relying on their own skill, rode 

 their own horses. 



Soon after the accession of this monarch, 

 who was " inordinately attached to the sports 

 of the chase," public races were established ; 

 and particular horses becoming known for 

 their swiftness, their breed was cultivated, and 

 their pedigrees recorded with the greatest 

 exactness. It was now that they began to be 

 trained expressly for the purpose, attention 

 being paid to the quantity and quality of the 

 animal's food, physic, sweats, and clothing : 

 the weights, also, which seldom exceeded ten 

 stone, were rigidly adjusted. Camden says, 

 that most of the celebrated races in the kins:- 

 dom were called Bell Courses — hence origi- 

 nated the adage, " He bears the bell." In this 

 reign, the value of Enghsh horses began to be 

 duly appreciated, and many were purchased 

 and exported to Erance. Thus, with all the 

 pedantry of this Scottish Solomon, it is evident 

 lie was a noted admirer of all that appertains 

 66 



to the horse; and it is easy to imagine him 

 invested in his sporting garb of forest-green, 

 with a feather in his cap, and a horn at his 

 side, contriving, in the most advanced state of 

 age and imbecility, when unable even to sit on 

 horseback without assistance, to follow the 

 chase, although unable to keep his seat in the 

 saddle without being laced, or tied up in it. 



Sir Simon D'Ewes, in his Journal, speaks of 

 " a horse-race, near Linton, in Cambridge- 

 shire, in the reign of James I., at which town 

 most of the company slept on the night of the 

 race 



Gatherly, in Yorkshire ; Croydon, in Sur- 

 rey ; and Theobald's, on Enfield Chase, when 

 the king was resident, were the spots where 

 races were run. The Arabian, for which James 

 paid five hundred pounds, and which was ridi- 

 culed b}^ the Duke of Newcastle, was of a bay 

 colour, a little horse, and no rarity for shape. 

 He was trained, but disgraced his country by 

 being beaten in England by every horse that 

 ran against him. 



Butcher, in his Survey of Stamford, informs 

 us, that a concourse of noblemen and gentle- 

 men met every Thursday in March, together 

 in the vicinity of that town, in mirth, peace, 

 and amity, for the exercise of their swift- 

 running horses. The prize they ran for was a 

 silver-gilt cup with a cover, of seven or eight 

 pounds, provided by the alderman for the time 

 beins. This sum was raised out of the interest 

 of a stock formerly made by the neighbouring 

 nobility and gentry, the well-wishers to the 

 town. 



Eaces were held at Newmarket, in the latter 

 end of the reign of Charles I., although the 

 Bound Course was not made till 16G6. In 

 this king's reign, races were also run in Hyde 

 Park, as appears from a comedy called the 

 Merry Beggars, or Jovial Crew, 1641. "Shaii 

 we make a fling to London, and see how the 

 spring appears there, in Spring-Garden and iu 

 Hyde Park, to see the races, horses and foot ?" 



At this epoch, however, the country was 

 distracted by scenes which came too closely 

 home to the bosom of every man to allow 

 attention to be paid to subjects which caw. 

 alone be prosecuted with effect in periods of 

 tranquillity. 



Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, men- 

 tions horse-racing as the disport of great men, 



