Till-: HORSE IX f.XGLAND TO BEC.l \\L\G OF SEVENTEENTH CENTUR}' 1 7 



Canterbury, in the shape of a gilt and enamelled cup with a stag upon its cover. 

 The only race by which this unfortunate millionaire has been handed down to Turf 

 history may very possibly have occurred at Newmarket, which had been found out 

 as highly suitable for tournaments as early as 1309; and in 1313 the Earls of 

 Pembroke, Gloucester, Hertford and Surrey were, with others, expressly prohibited 

 by Edward II. from holding a meeting there. The Lords of the Manor of 

 Newmarket were then the Argentines, who inherited it from a Norman ancestor, 

 and the first contemporary mention of the place occurs in a grant made them by 

 Henry 1 1 1. in i 226-7. It was nt -'U 

 after them by the Alington family 

 of Horseheath (an appropriate 

 name) until it passed to the Dukes 

 of Rutland in the reign of 

 George III. 



There are several other indica- 

 tions of the excellence of the Royal 

 stud in the reign of Richard II., 

 though of course the " roan 

 Bar bar y " which Shakespeare de- 

 scribes at Bolingbroke's coronation 

 is only valuable as the evidence of 

 two centuries later. 



In the reign of Edward I. good 

 horses could be got for 10, but by 

 the days of Edward III., who was 

 at one time indebted for horses to 

 the tune of 25,000 florins to the 

 Count of Hainault, the price of running horses had reached the equivalent of 

 nearly ,200 in our money. An issue of the Exchequer for 1363 also contains the 

 following interesting entry : " To William de Man ton. Keeper of the King's 

 Wardrobe, by the hands of Thomas Spigurnell, Keeper of the King's gre.it horses, 

 in discharge of i 19 6s. 8d. paid to the same Thomas for the purchase of div<-r> 

 horses from the Executors of the will of John, late Bishop of Lincoln, viz. : one free 

 sorrel Courser, price twenty marks ; one Courser spotted with white, price twenty 

 marks ; one Courser of a roan colour, from Pappenworth, price twenty marks ; one 



VOL. I. I) 



Kifh,ir,i If. 

 From Ike Picture in ike National Portrait Gallery. 



