DAVID HUME 173 



be held annually, the principal prize run for being 

 " a silver bell of value." 



Rather an eccentric individual, named David 

 Hume, was connected with the Turf in Scotland 

 about the middle of the sixteenth century. He 

 appears, indeed, to have been quite an interesting 

 personality. A resident of Wedderburn, where 

 he died in or about the year 1575 the early 

 writers, while admitting that when he died he 

 must have been fully fifty years of age, yet dis- 

 agree as to the exact date of his death he is 

 especially worthy of mention because probably 

 he was typical of a particular stamp of man that 

 during the latter half of the sixteenth century 

 was in a great measure responsible for the de- 

 velopment of the race horse. 



Presumably David Hume owned property, for 

 he is spoken of as "a gentleman of good status 

 in Berwickshire," and in later years his son, 

 known as David Hume of Godscroft, wrote a 

 book which became famous in Scottish literature, 

 the " History of the House of Douglas." 



The elder Hume is described as "a man 

 remarkable for piety, probity, candour and in- 

 tegrity." How ironical that description uncon- 

 sciously was we shall see in a moment. The 

 son, we are told, " seldom missed an oppor- 

 tunity of speaking in still more laudatory terms 

 of his father," but Mr J. P. Hore's opinion is to 

 the effect that if some such institution as the 



