HORSE FAIRS 231 



incidentally that it was at about this period that 

 English thoroughbreds were introduced into 

 France for the first time. 



This is interesting, inasmuch as certain writers 

 of an earlier epoch state definitely that English 

 thoroughbreds were to be seen in parts of France 

 in their day. 



Bassompierre, who had been in England in 

 Elizabeth's reign, is likely to have known the 

 true facts. In addition to being " addicted to 

 horses," he was passionately fond of gambling, 

 and the latter hobby is said to have cost him in 

 a single year some ,500,000. 



A family notorious early in the Stuart era for 

 its devotion to the Turf was the Fenwick family, 

 so much so that several of its members are de- 

 scribed as having run " quite out of their fortunes " 

 in their futile attempts to transform two or three 

 small fortunes into one large one. The sensa- 

 tional story of Sir John Fenwick's trial, followed 

 by his execution on Tower Hill in 1697, establishes 

 a sort of landmark in the history of the public 

 executions of the seventeenth century. 



During the first half of the same century horse 

 fairs were organised throughout England, and 

 year by year they became events of greater im- 

 portance, many hundreds of men and women of 

 all ranks travelling from far-distant parts of the 

 country in order to attend them. The scenes of 

 ribaldry by which many of these fairs were fol- 



