112 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



the stables of great northern trainers like John Scott and Thomas Dawson, or raced 

 against the pick of Black Hambleton, Larigton Wold, Richmond-on-the-Swale, or 

 Middleham. Even as late as 1825 Sir Matthew White Ridley's Fleur dc Lis was 

 deliberately knocked down when she was beating Memnon for the Leger in a canter. 

 But this was only the rough expression of heartfelt zeal in men who, like John Scott 

 himself, would " rather be hanged in Yorkshire than die in luxury at Newmarket." 

 The feeling remains, and Racing is the better for it. But other times have 

 fortunately brought us other manners, and I imagine there are few people 

 now who, like Sidney Smith, would " have the effrontery to declaim against 

 Racing" (to use his own words) "from the pulpit in the church at Malton, the 

 metropolis of the Turf." Of Black Hambleton's glorious past I have already spoken. 

 Doncaster was as lively as might be expected during the reign of Charles II. In 

 July, 1684, there was a Maiden Plate of four miles, and another plate,- at 8st., in 

 three heats, followed by a horse fair. Three years later the corporation were adding 

 money to the stakes. Nor was York behindhand. By 1709 the first race recorded 

 in Orton's Turf Annals was run over Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings, when Mr. Met- 

 calfe's six-year old b. h. Wart, I2st., won the^o Gold Cup. In 1710 we come to 

 such famous names on the same course as Sir Matthew Pierson's Bay Bolton (by 

 Grey Hautboy, dam by Jllakcless) who won the Gold Cup in August, against Mr. 

 Curwen's Fanny, by his Bay Barb, and other competitors, who were six-year-olds, 

 according to the conditions, while the winner gave them all a year. The next day 

 Mr. Mutton's Miss was beaten, and the day after Sir William Ramsden's Grey Ramsden 

 (by Grey Hautboy, dam by Byerlcy Turk} beat Mr. Curwen's Flat face, Lord Carlisle's 

 chestnut horse Ptpf>cr, and another. But I have gone too far already ; and I must 

 hark back again to the years before these famous animals were bred. In 1695 the 

 Justices of Durham Sessions were so determined to encourage sport that they 

 desired their chairman to inform the bishop that "henceforth their wages goe and be 

 employed for and towards the procuring of a plate or plates to be run for on Durham 

 Moor." Whether ecclesiastical sportsmanship was equally enthusiastic in its liber- 

 ality is not recorded, but it would be difficult to find a more striking instance of the 

 Northern love of racing than this. The names of William Bowes and Robert 

 Jennison occur among these generous Justices. 



Northampton had already traditions to keep up. The course at Rothwell, hard by, 

 was the scene of some capital racing in September, 1672, which is breezily described 

 in " Isham's Journal." The riders were Colonel Lisle, Lord Cullen (a name to be 



