86 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



by going down to Newmarket from town so early as three o'clock on a March 

 morning. The observant Diarist relates that on one of these journeys the Royal 

 coach was upset in Holborn, and the Dukes of York and Monmouth and Prince 

 Rupert were rolled with their Sovereign in the London dirt, owing to the torchlight 

 having been insufficiently cared for. However, we may be sure this did not stop his 

 getting there ; very little ever did ; and it may be hoped the ladies going in the same 

 direction fared a little better on what must have been a tedious journey under any 

 circumstances. But it was well worth while. There was Miss Jennings to be 

 admired, and Miss Churchill to be picked up when her horse ran away upon the 

 heath, while Frances Stewart, who had a better seat in the saddle than any woman 

 there, looked on and smiled, in the conscious superiority of a "white laced waistcoat, 

 and a crimson short petticoat, with her hair dressed a la negligence," quite cutting 

 out the yellow plumes of the disdainful (and somewhat neglected) Lady Castlemaine. 

 There was the latest story to hear of Buckingham and that abandoned Lady Shrewsbury, 

 who stood by in page's dress in the Park, while her lover killed her husband in a 

 duel. Then Francesco's new Italian methods of playing a guitar had to be criticised 

 even at the risk of hearing the efforts of half a dozen courtiers, trying to imitate the 

 incomparable. And after the racing, a hand of cards at the Duchess of Mazarin's 

 would wile away the time till supper, and it was an interesting study to observe how 

 men of various temperaments took their losses or winnings as the night wore on. 

 Evelyn saw the whole thing several times. " I lodged this night at Newmarket," he 

 writes in October, 1671, "where I found the jolly blades racing, dancing, feasting, 

 and revelling, more resembling a luxurious and abandoned rout than a Christian 

 Court. The Duke of Buckingham was now in mighty favour, and had with him that 

 impudent woman the Countess of Shrewsbury, with his band of fiddlers." They kept 

 Sunday, however, with great propriety, and Dr. Benjamin Calamy, who often preached 

 before the King at Newmarket, evidently knew how to take advantage of an 

 occasion, for his text one Sunday was " If sinners entice thee, consent thou not," a 

 valuable precept for a racecourse. Sometimes there was a spice of actual physical 

 peril too. The King and the whole Court were suddenly thrown into confusion one 

 March night in 1682, by a fire, which was indeed confined by strenuous exertions to 

 the Royal stables, after doing much damage in the town, but which caused so much 

 inconvenience by smoke and ashes that Charles determined to return to Whitehall 

 sooner than he had intended. In the bustle that ensued, Captain Sarsfield, "the tall 

 Irishman," ran away with Lady Herbert the heiress ; and the other ladies journeyed 



