PREFACE. xxvii 



One of the finest judges of racing in his generation was the late Mr Frank Clarke, 

 whose writing under the nom dc guerre of " Pegasus " was well known in the first 

 newspaper that was ever wholly devoted to sport. His entire fortune was left to 

 the National Gallery, and the annual purchase of pictures out of its interest is one 

 of the assets which is helping to make that great collection one of the finest in the 

 world. The name, too, of one of the few owners who have ever won four Derbys 

 is commemorated in the Bowes Museum in the north of England. It is only natural, 

 therefore, that among those whose assistance I have to acknowledge, Mr. Sidney 

 Colvin and Mr. Mayhew of the British Museum, and Mr. Lionel Gust, of the National 

 Portrait Gallery and Keeper of the King's Pictures, should be given the first place. 

 They have each been of the greatest service in the course of researches that might 

 have been impossible, and would certainly have proved far less fruitful, without 

 their courteous and kindly aid. 



But it is to contemporary sportsmen themselves, who are still closely connected 

 with the English Turf, that I owe most in this modest effort to illustrate its history ; 

 and to none do 1 owe more than to His Majesty the King, whose gracious interest 

 in this work has placed at my disposal all those paintings in the Royal collections 

 at Windsor, Buckingham Palace, Cumberland Lodge, and elsewhere, which were 

 of importance to my subject. The value of the reproductions thus obtained to all 

 my readers will be a better appreciation of His Majesty's kindness than any 

 expression of my own gratitude now possible. To His Royal Highness Prince 

 Christian I am also under a deep obligation, for which reasons will appear in 

 almost every volume of this work. His Royal Highness has lent me many 

 valuable records for reproduction from his own collection. 



His Grace the Duke of Westminster has most kindly permitted me to reproduce 

 the sporting pictures from Eaton in these pages. To the Earl of Rosebery I am 

 equally indebted, for in addition to having been allowed the privilege of inspecting 

 one of the finest collections of Turf paintings I have ever seen, I owe it to his 

 kindness that several rare pictures from the Durdans are published among these 

 chapters for the first time. Sir Walter Gilbey and Mr. Leopold de Rothschild have 

 been equally generous. From Elsenham Hall, and from that Old Palace House at 

 Newmarket, which is full of racing memories from the days of Charles II. to the St. 

 Leger of 1901, I have been enabled by the kindliness of their respective owners to 

 reproduce pictures which will add very greatly to the interest with which every lover 

 of the Turf will read this history. Mr. Somerville Tattersall has also given me the 



