172 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



that should have enabled him to speak with 

 authority, gives it as his opinion that the lad took 

 interest in horses of all kinds. 



Hargrove, in his " History and Description of 

 the ancient City of York," maintains that the 

 origin of horse racing can be traced back " even 

 to the time of the Romans," a statement apt to 

 prove misleading if we take it quite literally. 



That horse racing of a sort can be traced back 

 to a very remote period has already been indi- 

 cated, but, as we have also seen, almost the only 

 kind of racing in which the Romans took keen 

 interest was chariot racing, so there is reason to 

 believe that some of the early allusions to chariot 

 races may unwittingly have been confused with 

 horse races by some of our later historians. 



In a letter that appeared recently in a news- 

 paper published in Ireland, and that dealt at 

 length with the supposed origin of horse racing, 

 the writer remarked with unconscious humour 

 that " undoubtedly the first races in England 

 were held in Scotland." 



In this belief he was, of course, mistaken, 

 though it is known that the Scottish people have 

 from very early times been fond of horse racing, 

 and that the great race meeting held in Had- 

 dington in 1552 attracted an enormous concourse 

 of spectators from the Highlands and Lowlands 

 alike. 



Later the Haddington race meeting came to 



