THOMAS SHAD WELL'S CYNICISM 251 



being quite inferior to the sport shown in the 

 reign of the Merry Monarch. 



And by every means that lay in his power the 

 Duke of Newcastle abetted Charles. The duke 

 himself, soon after the Restoration, sank a con- 

 siderable sum in the purchase of fresh racing 

 stock to add to his stud, already a large one. 

 And thus the foundation of the thoroughbred stud 

 of modern times may be said to date practically 

 from about the latter part of the seventeenth 

 century. 



Thomas Shadwell, the famous playwright, who, 

 born in 1642, lived for half-a-century, alludes in 

 several of his dramatic works to " the great wave 

 of passionate devotion to vices of various kinds " 

 that seemed to roll gradually over the whole of 

 England during the reign of Charles II., while 

 special reference is made to the all-absorbing in- 

 terest taken in the Turf while the Merry Monarch 

 was on the throne. 



Speaking of Newmarket in particular, " there 

 a man is never idle," he makes one of his char- 

 acters cynically observe, " for we make visits to 

 horses, and talk with grooms, riders and cock- 

 keepers, and saunter in the Heath all the fore- 

 noon. 



4 'Then we dine, and never talk a word but of 

 dogs, cocks and horses. 



"Then we saunter into the Heath again, then 

 to a cock-match, then to a play in a barn, then to 



