CHARLES II.'S HORSEMANSHIP 247 



the Merry Monarch so far as his fondness for 

 horses and horse racing has to do with this history. 

 Every inch a horseman, he appears to have 

 been gifted with a singular aptitude for control- 

 ling almost any animal he mounted, and to have 

 developed in a high degree the instinct, or 

 whatever it may be, that to-day we speak of as 

 the power of judging pace in race riding. 



Endowed with nerve, also with physical courage 

 in abundance, it is not surprising that the king 

 should have been looked upon by many of his 

 courtiers almost as a demigod when first he 

 ascended the throne, and that the Duke of 

 Newcastle, who had trained him to horseman- 

 ship, should openly have expressed himself as 

 immensely proud of his pupil and his pupil's skill. 



In the principal race at Chester the horses 

 used to run five times round the Roody. It was 

 upon a horse running in this race that Charles 

 once staked and lost a small fortune. The meet- 

 ings he most preferred, however, probably were 

 those held periodically at Newmarket, where to 

 this day the famous Rowley Mile recalls to 

 memory the seventeenth-century's cheeriest 

 monarch, a king to whom horse racing in this 

 country still owes so much. 



It was, indeed, King Charles II. who almost 

 entirely rebuilt the stand at Newmarket after the 

 original one had been damaged beyond repair 

 during the progress of the Civil War. It is said 



