20 



A HISl'ORy OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



The great and intelligent house of the Estes of Ferrara, especially benefited by 

 judicious purchases; and it appears that colts bred at Eltham were particularly 

 appreciated in the paddocks of Mantua, fdr the tempestuous Queen Margaret of 

 Anjou (the foundress of Queens' College, Cambridge, of whom I have written 

 more at length elsewhere" sent some Eltham-bred stock by her Master of Horse to 

 the Marquis of Este in the middle of the fifteenth century, which so delighted 

 him that he made her envoy, Reynold Chichely, the Rector of his own University. 

 Thus do true scholarship and a love of the Turf ever go hand in hand together, 

 if only they are given a fair chance of mutual appreciation. Another trace of this 



Royal sportswoman's in- 

 telligent interest in the 

 Newmarket district, is to 

 be found in her gift of 

 ^13 6s 8d (in 1453) to 

 two men there whose 

 stable had been burnt. 

 It is of great and con- 

 soling interest to observe 

 that when the produce of 

 some of these exiles to 

 Italy and elsewhere, in 

 the shape of Governatore 

 and Altobello, were sent 

 back again to Henry 

 VIII., they were con- 

 sidered to be " worth 

 their weight in silver." 



So the Eltham stud was celebrated long before the days of Mr. Blenkiron, and the 

 Middle Park Plate has somewhat more august associations than its history since 

 1866 would alone seem to indicate. It deserves more than the passing notice which 

 is all that can be given here, to observe how early and how invariably the 

 descendants of that fortunate union of Arab sire with English mare have proved 

 their superiority, not merely over either of their parents, but over every other strain 

 or cross in the history of breeding throughout the world. Erom it were descended 

 the only " foreign " horses who ever carried off our classic races. Iroquois, 



Oiift'ii Mni'^iirct iiiui her Court 

 From Lyilgatc's Life of St. Edmund. 



