4 THE RACING WORLD 



need not fear that I am going to be archaic. 

 The twelve chapters which will make up the 

 present series of papers are to be devoted to 

 actuality ; but I must express, in two brief lines, 

 a regret that Samuel Pepys did not go racing and 

 tell us something in detail about the proceedings 

 of the monarch who gave the name to the Rowley 

 Mile. On May 22nd, 1668, the Diarist records 

 that " the King and the Duke of York and Court 

 are this day at Newmarket at a great horse race, 

 and propose great pleasure for two or three days." 

 Five years previously the King had been there, and 

 in 1669 we find again, "I hear that to-morrow 

 the King and the Duke of York set out for New- 

 market by three in the morning to some foot and 

 horse races ; to be abroad ten or twelve days." 

 Macaulay tells how thirty years later, in 1698, the 

 French Ambassador " was invited to accompany 

 William to Newmarket, where the largest and 

 most splendid Spring Meeting ever known was to 

 assemble." The attraction may be supposed to 

 have been great, for the risks of the journey were 

 not trifling. Macaulay gives an account of these 

 risks, but adds that they " did not deter men of 

 rank and fashion from making the joyous pilgrimage 

 to Newmarket. Half the Dukes in the kingdom 

 were there ; most of the chief Ministers of State 



