96 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



In this etching the King is in the grand stand, a temporary affair of wood, 

 distinguished by his ribbon of the Garter across his breast, and by the wearing of his 

 hat. The two others who are wearing their hats are probably the Duke of York and 

 another Royal relative. The King's coach and six waits behind, and the Beefeaters 

 are well in evidence. The primitive arrangements for weighing are worth notice, 

 and I hope that in the build of the horses there may be traced more of fidelity to 

 their Eastern origin, than of fancy on the part of Master Barlow, who bursts into 

 verse on the margin of his picture as follows : 



" To future times may these illustrious Sports 

 Be only the divertisements of Courts, 

 Since the best Man, best Judge, and best of Kings, 

 Whose President, the best example brings, 

 When ere his Godlike mind unbent from care, 

 To all his pleasures this he would prefer . . .'' 



With much more to the same effect. It is sad to think how soon "Old Rowley," as his 

 intimates called him after his favourite hack, was to have ridden his last race against 

 Death and lost. While the Rowley Mile remains a portion of the British Consti- 

 tution, he will not be forgotten, nor did his memory need the reviving touch of the 

 name of the Derby winner of 1845. If he was unfortunately prone to that Royal 

 temptation which Lord Halifax describes as " the thing called sauntering," he could, 

 at least, walk any sportsman in his kingdom from Whitehall to Hampton Court when 

 he liked ; he was bad to beat when out with the hounds ; at tennis he played a fine 

 game ; and he could shoot, or fish, or fly a hawk with any man. These sporting 

 proclivities he did his best to distribute among the aristocracy of his country by 

 transmitting on his left hand what his right hand so skilfully performed. The ducal 

 houses of Grafton, St. Albans, Richmond, and Buccleuch, were monuments of 

 that endeavour. And he endowed the first Grammar School at Newmarket, a thing 

 too easily forgotten in these highly educational days. 



The list of his racehorses in 1674 is given in the State Papers for May to 

 October as twelve, with forty-two coach horses, four "bobble" horses, twenty 

 " coursers," and managed horses for the great saddle, two stallions, nine sumpter 

 horses, and two chariot horses. These are probably only those kept in London, 

 though the yearly expenses of the Buckingham Palace stables are estimated at over 

 , 10,000, including several items for " attendance at Newmarket." The horses in 



