SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



men on their return from the races were 

 of course numerous, and cock fighting was 

 freely indulged in when nothing else was 

 going on. 1 



The last Barnet races were held on Sep- 

 tember 6, 1870, when Mr. Hodson's Pole- 

 axe won the principal race. The races 

 finished where High Barnet railway station 

 now stands. 



Race meetings were held intermittently at 

 Berkhampstead, Dunstable, Ware, Northaw, 

 Tring and Wormley at different periods 

 between 1729 and 1769. 



In August, 1804, a two days' race meeting 

 was held at Bushey Meadow near Watford, 

 and Lord Clarendon was the breeder of the 

 winner of the Galloway Races. 



The Brocket Hall Races also appear in 

 the Racing Calendar from 1 804. When Lord 

 Melbourne lived at Brocket he kept open 

 house. George IV, as prince regent, always 

 attended this race meeting and ran horses 

 there, as did Sir John Shelley, Sir Charles 

 Bunbury and other leading men on the turf. 

 Brocket Park was used in 1816 as a training 

 ground for a few racehorses by the well 

 known trainer, Thomas Coleman, when he 

 first came into Hertfordshire in that year. 



In 1820 Lord Verulam allowed Coleman 

 to train his horses in Gorhambury Park, and 

 shortly afterwards Coleman took the Chequers 

 Inn at St. Albans, where he built large train- 

 ing stables, and was employed to train horses 

 for Lord George Bentinck, Lord Verulam and 

 many other well known racing men. 



GORHAMBURY RACES. In 1829 Coleman 

 held a race meeting at No Man's Land near 

 St. Albans. He persuaded King George IV to 

 run a horse in the Gorhambury Stakes, which 

 his Majesty won. The meeting at No Man's 

 Land not having been a financial success, 

 Coleman induced Lord Verulam the next year 

 to allow the meeting to be held in Gorham- 

 bury Park. This meeting proved very suc- 

 cessful, and from 1830 until the death of 

 Lord Verulam in 1845 the meeting was 

 regularly held for two days each year, be- 

 tween the Epsom meeting and Ascot, and 

 was patronized by all the leading members 

 of the turf. 



The following account is given in the 

 Sporting Magazine of the races held there 

 in 1 844 : ' We have often written about this 

 agreeable diversion, the easy distance from 

 London, the magnificent park wherein the 

 running takes place, surrounded as it is by 

 the most picturesque scenery, the easy modes 

 of access, it is calculated to afford induce- 



Sporting Magazine, 1 794. 



ments to an agreeable trip for a pleasant 

 party. Amongst those present were the 

 Duke of Rutland, the Marquises of Exeter 

 and Worcester, the Earls of Clarendon, 

 Chesterfield, Albemarle, Sefton, Craven, 

 Stradbroke, Maidstone and March, Lords 

 Macdonald, Glamis, E. Fitzclarence, etc., 

 etc.' The racing lasted two days, and the 

 stakes were named the Craven, the Gorham- 

 bury Handicaps, the Pras Stakes, the Pond- 

 yards Stakes, and the St. Albans Handicap. 

 The horses in the latter race had to be rid- 

 den by officers in the army or navy, or by 

 members of White's, Brooks', Boodle's and 

 a few other clubs, including the Herts Hunt 

 Club. A whip was subscribed for by the 

 ladies, to be given to the rider of the winner. 

 Upon this day, May 22, 1844, the winner 

 was ridden by Captain Clark, who ' immedi- 

 ately received the whip from the fair hands 

 of the lovely lady Jane Grimston, who com- 

 plimented the winner on his improved horse- 

 manship.' 



Lord Verulam's horse, Robert de Gorham, 

 which had run third in the Derby, ran at 

 these races. 



After the death of Lord Verulam in 1845, 

 Coleman bought the Lilley Hoo Farm, and 

 continued to train there until he retired and 

 went to live at Barnet, where he wrote his 

 interesting Recollections, which were published 

 in Baity $ Magazine in 1876 and 1877. 

 Coleman, who died in 1877 at a great age, 

 was a man quite out of the common a man 

 of original ideas and of great observation.* 

 Born in a humble position, he raised himself 

 by sheer force of will and intellect, and from 

 riding gallops as an exercise lad he became 

 the trusted councillor on matters connected 

 with horseflesh to some of the greatest men 

 of the time. 



Lord Verulam bred many good horses, 

 and ' Gorhambury,' bred by his lordship, ran 

 second for the Derby in 1 843. 



THE Hoo RACES. From 1831 to 1836 

 flat races were run at The Hoo, Kimpton, 

 during Lord Dacre's mastership of the Hert- 

 fordshire Hounds, but they were only open 

 to farmers living in the county or to mem- 

 bers of the hunt. After the Hoo Races were 

 given up, a 50 plate was given by the hunt 

 to be run for by farmers in the Hertfordshire 

 Hunt country at the Harpenden Races. But 

 this failed to attract farmers' horses, so it was 

 discontinued, and point to point steeplechases 



a He was a great advocate for the more natural 

 treatment of the racehorse, which has quite re- 

 cently been so successfully adopted in this country 

 by the American trainers. 



367 



