-28 THE HORSE. 



There was at first no course marked out for the race, but the contest 

 generally consisted in the running; of train-scent across the country, and 

 sometimes the most difficult and dangerous part of the country was 

 selected for the exhibition. Occasionally our present steeple chase was 

 adopted with all its dangers, and more than its present barbarity ; for per- 

 sons were appointed cruelly to flog along the jaded and exhausted horses. 



It should, however, be acknowledged that the races of that period were 

 not disgraced by the system of gambling and fraud which seems to have 

 become almost inseparable from the amusements of the turf The prize 

 was usually a wooden bell adorned with flowers. This was afterwards 

 exchanged for a silver bell, and *' given to him who should run the best 

 and farthest on horseback on Shrove Tuesday." Hence the common 

 phrase of " bearing away the bell." 



Horse-racing became gradually more cultivated ; but it was not until 

 the last year of the reign of James I., that rules were promulgated and 

 generally subscribed to for their regulation. That prince was fond of field 

 sports. He had encouraged, if he did not establish, horse-racing in Scot- 

 land, and he brought with him to England his predilection for it ; but his 

 races were more often matches against time, or trials of speed and bottom, 

 for absurdly and cruelly long distances. His favourite courses were at 

 Croydon and on Enfield Chase. 



Although the Turkish and Barbary horses had been freely used to pro- 

 duce with the English mare the breed which was best suited to this exer- 

 cise, little improvement had been effected. James, with great judgment, 

 determined to try the Arab breed. Probably, he had not forgotten the story 

 of the Arabian, which had been presented to one of his Scottish churches, 

 five centuries before. He purchased, from a merchant named Markham, 

 a celebrated Arabian horse, for which he gave the extravagant sum of five 

 hundred pounds. Kings, however, like their subjects, are often thwarted 

 and governed by their servants, and the Duke of Newcastle took a dislike 

 to this foreign animal. He wrote a book, and a very good one, on horse- 

 manship, an^d described this Arabian as a little bony horse, of ordinary 

 shape, setting him down as good for nothing, because, after being regularly 

 trained, he could not race. The opinion of the Duke, probably altogether 

 erroneous, had, for nearly a century, great weight ; and the Arabian horse 

 lost its reputation among the English turf-breeders. 



A South-Eastern horse was afterwards brought into England, and pur- 

 chased by James, of Mr. Place, who was afterwards stud-master, or groom 

 to Oliver Cromwell. This beautiful animal was called the White Turk, 

 and his name and that of his keeper will long be remembered. Shortly 

 afterwards appeared the Helmsley Turk, introduced by Villiers, the first 

 duke of Buckingham. He was followed by Fairfax's Morocco Barb. 

 These horses speedily effected a considerable change in the character of 

 our breed, so that Lord Harleigh, one of the old school, complained that 

 the great horse was fast disappearing, and that horses were now bred light 

 and fine for the sake of speed only. 



Charles I. ardently pursued this favourite object of English gentlemen, 

 and, a little before his rupture with the parliament, established races in 

 Hyde Park, and at Newmarket. The civil wars somewhat suspended the 

 improvement of the breed ; yet the advantage which was derived by both 

 parties from a light and active cavalry, sufficiently proved the importance 

 of the change which had been effected ; and Cromwell perceiving, with 

 his wonted sagacity, how much these pursuits were connected with the 

 prosperity of the country, had his stud of race-horses. 



