/!/:< ;/.\\.'\<;s OF REAL RACING AND GENEALOGIES OF ni.ooo STOCK. 117 



conspiracies. It is clear that the popularity which was to result in the Derby did 

 not begin until the fashionable world had entirely neglected the Wells, but even in 

 these early days there was sport to be had. Indeed, the first Meeting on record 

 after the Restoration was attended by Charles II., appropriately enough, on Ban- 

 stead Downs, on the 7th of March, 1661. There was, of course, hawking and other 

 kinds of sport. Two years afterwards the King and the Duke of York lost their 

 bets on a tyler in a footrace there, who was beaten by the Duke of Richmond's foot- 

 man. By 1665 one of the oldest coaches established for suburban traffic had begun to 

 run between the Red Lion at Lambeth, and Mr. Billet the barber's shop at Epsom. 

 When the Duke of York became James II., a 20 plate had been established, 

 at lost. 4lb., in three heats. " The horses to be at Cashalton or Barrows-Hedges 

 a fortnight before the day of running " (in November and May). The entry 

 was three guineas, to be paid a week before the race to the Clerk of the Course. 

 This continued throughout the reign of William III., and in 1698 we find Lord 

 \\ inchilsea winning a stake of higher value than any yet given. The last notice in 

 this century is contained in the Gazette for May, 1699, which runs as follows : 

 "On Whitson Monday a Plate of 5 value will be Run for on Branstead Downs 

 3 Heats ; each Horse to carry 10 stone and pay io/. No horse to run that ever 

 run for above /"id, and the winning horse to be thrown for at ^10 price by the 

 Gentlemen who put in their horses. The horses are to be shown the morning 

 before the run at Mr. John Watson's at Barrows' -Hedges, when will be good 

 Entertainment." 



I have spoken of Tom Thynne in describing the Court of Charles II., and of his 

 unhappy end, which was carved as a warning upon his tomb in the Abbey. His 

 " widow," Lady Ogle, was married by the Duke of Somerset, Chancellor of 

 Cambridge University. The years of James II. add scarcely anything to the 

 chronicles of the English Turf, so that I can pass on at once to William III. by way 

 of the Chancellor's invitation to the Dutch monarch, to come over to Cambridge, 

 and be made "a true Englishman," as Lord Coote says, writing from Newmarket in 

 1689. Nine years afterwards the visit was returned with all the state of which the 

 University dignitaries were capable. The occasion was memorable, for the 

 splendours of an unusually magnificent Spring Meeting were enhanced by the 

 extravagant displays made by the French Ambassador, who was brought down to 

 see the races. My Lord Duke of Somerset made a match with one of his own horses, 

 for the honour of his University, against the King for two thousand guineas, as a 



