356 THE JOCKEY CLUB 



Benevolent and Provident Fund. That fund is under- 

 stood to have commenced with the sum of money 

 subscribed for a testimonial to Lord G. Ben thick on 

 account of his services in the detection of the 'Run- 

 ning Bein ' fraud, but to have been projected some 

 years before by that same Mr. "Whyte, of the Hippo- 

 drome, Bayswater, who first invented or is said to 

 have been the first to invent the invaluable ' tan 

 gallop.' 



Lord Suffolk and Berkshire (Badminton Library, 

 ' Racing,' p. 55) says : ' To ordinary minds, however, 

 it seems that the only beneficial method by which 

 Parliament could exercise a control over racing would 

 be that of bestowing some form of incorporation on 

 the Jockey Club, and having thus asserted its supre- 

 macy, the Legislature might well leave the general 

 management and direction of Turf matters in the 

 hands of that body, which for a hundred and thirty 

 years has held an undisputed authority, which now 

 rules over many thousands of the inhabitants of the 

 kingdom, and whose laws and regulations, obeyed 

 and respected here, receive the sincere flattery of 

 imitation from other countries.' Here is a statement 

 which, as we have seen, is perfectly true on the 

 whole, but requires some modification. ; for the autho- 

 rity of the Club, by its own published acknowledg- 

 ment, did not extend necessarily (as appears from the 

 case of the alteration, in 1838, from May to January 

 of age-taking) beyond Newmarket till within the last 



