96 Sr.^r::':^ ard Rural Records of the Chereley Estate. 



Saxtox Hall. 



Francis Earl of 

 Godolphin. 



TbeGololphin 

 Arabian 



begun his racing career at the Newmarket Spring Meeting of 

 I 70S, and, as we shall presently perceive, he continued to be a 

 prominent patron of the Turf for just upon fifty years. During 

 this prolonged period his horses achieved many brilliant victories. 

 In his early racing days he was associated, in some respects, with 

 Mr. TregonweD Frampton, in whom he had an able mentor and a 

 staunch friend. The glamour which surrounds Lord Godolphin's 

 name arose through, and is still identified with, the famous Arabian 

 stallion which became his property in 1 733. And here it may be 

 noted that the romantic incident which elevated this stallion from 

 obscurity to fame has been, by various writers, associated with the 

 name and times of the first Earl of Godolphin (which is absurd), 

 and by others to his son, the second Earl ; nevertheless, the 

 incident in question took place before the stallion was bought by 

 the last mentioned nobleman. 



In consequence of the death of Mr. Coke, which occurred 

 early in 1733, all that gentleman's horses were sold, when Francis, 

 second Earl of Godolphin, bought Lath, a bay colt yearling out of 

 Roxana, by Mr. Coke's Arabian, a sorrel foal (Roundhead j, by 

 Childers, also out of Roxana ; their dam, and the Arabian, which 

 was thenceforward called the Godolphin Arabian. 



This Arab was a brown bay horse, with a small white patch 

 behind his off hind fetlock. He stood about fifteen hands. It is 

 not known from what particular race of Arab horses he was 

 descended, nor in what year, or under what circumstances, he was 

 brought to England. Beyond the fact of his ha\nng been imported 

 b)- Mr. Coke, presumably from Paris, where, it is alleged, he had 

 been worked in a cart, nothing further is known about him at that 

 time. For some years before he was bought by Lord Godolphin 

 he is said to have been teazer to Mr. Coke's Hobgoblin ;* and in 



* At Newmarket, April 8, 1729, Hobgoblin, a chestnut horse, by Aleppo (son of 

 Careless) — Old Smithson (Wanton Willy) — arising five year old, beat Lord Halifax's 

 br. c Kg, in a rn^nrh for 100 guineas, 951. each, 4 miles. On the 29th he won a 

 similar match against Lord Halifax's Conqueror. On October 25 he beat Mr. Vane's 

 Miss Pert in a match for 300 guineas ; and on the following day won a Subscription 



