54 A HlSTORl' OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



care requisite to success were not recognised till some time afterwards. As early 

 as 1605, for instance, the Gentleman of the Horse in a great nobleman's house is 

 ordered to keep notes of every mare covered, and of her foal ; and at one of the 

 most famous studs kept by country gentlemen, that of Sir George Reresby, at 

 Ickles, in Yorkshire, a very large acreage is known to have been entirely devoted 

 to pasture for horses and racing-ground. One of the most famous owners of the 

 day was George Villiers, first Duke ot Buckingham, who made his first steps to 

 fortune with one foot on the Turf and the other on the Stage ; for he began his 

 conquest over the King's heart either at a race at Linton or in some Theatricals 

 at Cambridge. Within a few years he rose to be a Duke, a Knight of the Garter, 

 Lord High Admiral of England, and Master of the Horse. He married the richest 

 girl in England, and owned the best racing stud in the country. Among his 

 many betting transactions the loss of/ioo over a race at Newcastle, to William, 

 second Karl of Salisbury, is recorded. He was but six and thirty when he was 

 murdered by Felton, after a short but sumptuous career, which apparently left very 

 little benefit behind it to anything except the breed of English horses. 



It needed a great deal to interfere with Royal racing fixtures at Newmarket, if 

 one may judge from the fact that the King was there eighteen days after the Queen's 

 death in 1619, and had so pleasant a time that he was obliged to break the journey 

 home at Wickfordbridge and Royston. The street of the King's Gate through 

 which he rode so often to his favourite country seat is now being demolished by the 

 new scheme for connecting Holborn with the Strand and Theobald's Road by means 

 of a broad avenue. But if the associations at one end of that Royal trip are being 

 lessened, Time's whirligig has brought in its revenges at the other, and Newmarket 

 is far greater than it ever was under the early Stuarts, as may be seen from the 

 picture I have given of their Grand Stand. 



The passion which James I. displayed for its attractions is largely explained by 

 that love of gambling throughout his Kingdom which goes parallel with the 

 development of the Turf from the beginning of its history. Though the King 

 limited his English legislation in this direction to repealing the statute of 

 Richard II. already mentioned, he was more severe in Scotland, where it was 

 made illegal to gamble on cards or dice at any inn, and even in any private house 

 where the host took a hand himself; and, forasmuch as no godly subject of the 

 Crown could expect to flourish on gains so ill-gotten, it was further arranged that 

 any sum over a hundred marks won by betting at a horse-race should be given to the 



