OLD MATCHES, AND NEW DODGES 69 



It is hardly possible to say where the first regular 

 race-meetings were established ; but ' the good city 

 of Lincoln ' was the first to erect a grand stand on 

 its race-course. In Nichol's Progresses of James I. 

 we read that on Thursday, April 3, 1617, his Majesty 

 was at Lincoln, 'where there was a greate Horse- 

 race on the heath for a Cupp, where his Majestic 

 was present, and stoode upon a Scaffold ye Cittie 

 had caused to be set up, and withal caused ye race 

 a quarter of a mile long to be raled and corded 

 with rope and hoopes on both sides, whereby the 

 people were kept out, and the horses that ronned 

 were seen faire.' 



Those who see the next Lincoln Handicap will 

 do well to remember, therefore, that the corporation 

 of Lincoln was the first to provide good accommo- 

 dation on its racecourse, and they will doubtless feel 

 grateful in the extreme to the predecessors of the 

 present corporate body of the ancient city. 



We are not informed what were the weights or 

 distances in the Lincoln races just mentioned, but 

 no doubt they were greater than in the present day, 

 judging from the following : 



c In 1676 a race was run on Winchester Downs, 

 " none but gentlemen to ride, four-mile heats ; four- 

 teen stone was the weight up without the saddle, 

 and fourteen stone two pounds and a half with." 

 And during the last century the majority of royal 

 plates were given to six-year-old horses carrying 



