A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



of astrology. That, of course, was still a respectable art, and the Abbe was a 

 personage of some importance. Charles invited him to Newmarket and put him 

 to prophesying the results of races. The King writes in March, 1669, " I came 

 from Newmarket the day before yesterday, where we had as fine weather as we 

 could wish, which added much both to the horsematches as well as to the hunting. 

 L'Abbe Pregnani was there most part of the time, and I believe will give you 

 some account of it, but not that he lost his money upon confidence that the 

 Starrs could tell which horse would win, for he had the ill-luck to foretell three 

 times wrong together, and James [the 

 Duke of Monmouth] believed him so 

 much as he lost all his money upon the 

 same score." It seems that the unlucky 

 prophet remonstrated with the King 

 for making fun of him, for Charles 

 good-naturedly wrote again to beg his 

 sister not to lose confidence in the 

 worth}- man since horseracing was out- 

 side the proper sphere of his art. The 

 Duke of Monmouth must have been 

 a fascinating fellow. " Seldom," writes 

 Hamilton, "has Nature moulded a 

 more perfect form. His manly face 

 was full of charm and was neither 

 effeminate nor dull, yet every feature 

 in it had a delicate beauty all its own. 

 To a wonderful skill in every form of 

 sport, he united an engaging manner 

 and dignified deportment, but his strength of mind did not quite equal the graces of 

 his body." He could never reconcile himself to the Duke of York's probable 

 accession, and his schemes against that prince's power finally ended in his own 

 execution after Sedgmoor. Ever since the Civil War a certain spice of political 

 intrigue seems to have been added to racing and other forms of sport, whenever 

 the more serious arena of responsible statesmen was in any way troubled by 

 conflicting factions. It lasted for along time, and the Duke of Wharton, in the 

 middle of the next reign, apparently only raced at all in order to give all the 



Thomas Thynne, called " Tom of Ten Thousand." 



By Sir Peter Lely 



