58 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



James I., he was created Earl Marshal in 1621, married Alithea, the heiress of the 

 Shrewsburys, and laid the foundation of the fortune which his descendants spent so 

 wisely, and so freely, on the Turf. He was of material assistance to his Sovereign 

 when affairs of State intruded upon the pleasures of a royal visit to Newmarket, as 

 at the reception of M. de Boiscot, and he was the arbiter of several disputes which 

 arose on the same spot. But to return to Markham ; his notions of age read queerly 

 nowadays, when a two-year-old scurry is one of the commonest occurrences on the 



Spanish Ilortf cf /,'/<' curly Sevciitefntk Century. 



By Stradcmua. 



Turf. Horses, he writes, "are fit for the saddle at foure years of age, for the wars at 

 six, for the race at eight, and for hunting or extreme matches at ten or eleven." The 

 tradition of not working them too young lasted till almost the end of the eighteenth 

 century ; and was indeed an almost necessary consequence of the heavy weights carried 

 in the old days. The extreme wastefulness in equine life produced by modern methods 

 needs no emphasis. Whether it is essential to good sport I express no opinion. 

 But it is strangely like the policy of a " quick turnover " which used to be associated 

 only with mercantile affairs. That lasting was preferred to pace for some time yet is 



