234 RACING, PAST AND PRESENT. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



RACING, PAST AND PRESENT. 



Rarity of races in old days ; extracts from records — Racing in 1 750 — Value of 

 stakes in present day ; table — Ancient estimation of the horse ; King Athel- 

 stan's running horses — The earliest race on record — Racing as it was ; dis- 

 tances travelled and hardships ; the Duke of Queensberry and " Hellfire 

 Dick ;" a six-mile race ; heats ; cruel feats of endurance — Racing as it is : 

 horses run oftener now ; Fisherman's performances, and others ; Isoline, 

 Crucifix, Galopin — Racing for pleasure, and modern increase of betting — 

 Cosmopolitan state of the turf — Evils of usuiy — Career of the Marquess of 

 Hastings ; its assumed disastrous result refuted — Career of the lafe Earl of 

 Derby — The two contrasted, and satisfactory deductions therefrom — Betting 

 a chief cause of loss, greatly increased by usury — Example of the latter ; 

 £2,QXX> for a box of cigars. 



If we come to compare racing as it is and as it used to 

 be, we shall fmd how vastly it has improved as a science 

 and increased as a national pastime. 



In 1750, or thirty years before the first Derby was run, we 

 find the races so numerically small that in order to make a 

 volume recording the races of a respectable size, it was found 

 necessary to add " Cooking " and a list of battles fought. 

 The account of the first race given in this curious and interest- 

 ing little volume I give verbatim. " Upon the 15th day of 

 March (1749) the annual Sixteen Guineas Prize was run for 



