6 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1750- 



horses the property of the noblemen and gentlemen 

 belonging to the Jockey Club, at the Star and Garter 

 in Pall Mall/ Whether it was that the date of April 1 

 struck somebody as being of ill-omen, or for some 

 other reason, the race did not come off at the date 

 announced, but was postponed until the Newmarket 

 Meeting in May 1753, at which two ' Jockey Club 

 Plates,' both for horses belonging to members of the 

 Jockey Club, were run for, and became the precursors 

 of the two Jockey Club Plates thenceforward run for, 

 under like conditions as regards ownership, for many 

 successive years at the Second Spring Meeting, until 

 the Plates fell into the desuetude and oblivion which 

 seem to await, sooner or later, all exclusive institutions. 

 It is plain, however, from what has been said, that 

 the Jockey Club must have been in existence as early 

 as 1751, and probably as early as 1750, and that its 

 place of meeting was in Pall Mall, at that Star and 

 Garter which was the favourite meeting-house of many 

 clubs, was celebrated for its choice cookery and wines, 

 was notorious for its expensiveness, and was, some 

 few years after the foundation of the Jockey Club, the 

 scene of the tragic quarrel in which Mr. Chaworth 

 was killed by Lord Byron (who, as well as Mr. Cha- 

 worth, may have been a member of the Jockey Club, 

 for both, and especially the noble lord, were ' horsey,' 

 but there is no proof of membership in either case). 

 At the Star and Garter, too, it is recorded that ' the 

 laws of cricket were revised, on February 25, 1774, 



