A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



porting horses from Flanders and from the East (chiefly Spanish " dextrarii " or war- 

 horses) rests on the better basis of the Royal registers, and the Spanish stallions of 

 Barb descent which Roger de Belesme, created Earl of Shrewsbury, took over to his 

 estate in Powisland, of course definitely affected the breed in those parts, which is 

 celebrated by Giraldus Cambrensis. It continued good ; for Edward II. purchased a 

 " Powys horse" in the I3th century. 



Racing seems to have been first considered worthy of separate mention, as a 

 fashionable amusement for the upper classes, by Sir Bevys of Southampton, a poet 

 who says that the knights made courses on horseback at Whitsuntide, in the reign oi 

 King Richard I., over a distance of three miles, for a stake of thirty pounds of gold. 

 I must confess that I regard this evidence with suspicion. Fitz Stephen is not so 



explicit, but more convincing, in what 

 he describes at Smithfield in the pre- 

 vious reign, where sham fights on horse- 

 back were the popular version of those 

 knightly tournaments which the King 

 discouraged ; but the name of Knight- 

 rider Street still records the route taken 

 by the jousters in more sympathetic 

 reigns. " W'hen a race," says the old 



Cuck fighting in the l-'oui-tcfnlli Ctntury. 



writer, " is to be run by this sort of 



J'rom a JA!>. in the Bodleian Library. 



horses (hackneys and charging steeds), 



and perhaps by others which in their kind are also strong and fleet, a shout is im- 

 mediately raised and the common horses are ordered to withdraw out of the way. 

 Three jockeys, or sometimes only two, as the match is made, prepare themselves for 

 the contest. The horses on their part are not without emulation ; they tremble and 

 are impatient, and are continually in motion. At last, the signal once given, they 

 start, devour the course, and hurry along with unremitting swiftness. The jockeys, 

 inspired with the thought of applause and the hope of victory, clap spurs to their 

 willing horses, brandish their whips, and cheer them with their cries." 



There are several evidences, which are easily detected in the phraseology 

 of this historian, to show that the proceedings were not merely the usual 

 trials of a horse by his groom before a possible buyer previous to the sale. 

 The course is cleared; there is a prearranged signal; and there seems a 

 definite arrangement (if not a wager) on the part of the riders to discover 



