1773 FIRST PERIOD 11 



have represented the interests of the persons most 

 intimately connected with the business of the Turf ; 

 to have been likely to promote the cause of horse- 

 breeding; to have had the convenience and advantage 

 of the public at heart ; and to have been fitted for the 

 discharge of functions which by degrees they partly 

 assumed and partly had thrust upon them, and for 

 transmitting to their successors a sound policy in 

 respect of the Turf and its management. 



The Club has now been in existence for nearly a 

 hundred and fifty years. If, therefore, we take the 

 names or titles of such persons as can be proved to 

 have been more or less active members of it for the 

 first twenty years, from 1753 (the year of the Club's 

 first appearance with its two exclusive Plates at New- 

 market) to 1773 (a very convenient date at which to 

 halt, because then the long connection between the 

 Club and Messrs. Weather by and their ' Calendar ' 

 commenced), we may be sure that the group will be 

 fairly representative of the noblemen and gentlemen 

 who may be styled the original founders. 



It should be remarked, before we proceed any 

 farther, that a name or title, especially the latter, 

 very often covers two or three different individuali- 

 ties, successive holders having been elected succes- 

 sively to the Club, and fathers and sons, brothers 

 and homonymous cousins, having sometimes been 

 members at the same time. 



Among the members from 1753 to 1773, then, we 



