PROSPERITY OF THE TURF 219 



The judge in this race was a Mr Humphrey 

 Wyvell, and so greatly annoyed did the crowd 

 become at the defeat of the favourite that they 

 made a desperate attempt to attack the judge, 

 with the intention of injuring him seriously, an 

 attempt that fortunately was frustrated. 



We are not told if the king was present upon 

 this occasion, but the principal racing men of the 

 period undoubtedly were there. The king him- 

 self attended a meeting at Lincoln in the spring 

 of 1617, where he lost very heavily. 



Towards the end of this reign strong opposition 

 to the increasing popularity of racing began to 

 manifest itself among what we should to-day call 

 the middle class, owing, so it was said, to the 

 sport being vigorously denounced from pulpit 

 and platform as a growing national evil, " one 

 likely to imperil the whole country's prosperity." 



For some time the king strove to smother 

 these denunciations, and he even partially suc- 

 ceeded in the attempt. 



Yet in the end the people must have triumphed, 

 for we read that James was still on the throne 

 when some of the more popular of the flat-race 

 meetings were tacitly allowed to be abandoned, 

 while in 1620 the meeting which usually had 

 been held at Thetford was directly suppressed 

 by an order of the Privy Council. 



Among the most important of the private 

 riding matches, as they were then called, that 



