2O6 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



morris - dances, and maypole - meetings 

 more extinct than either. It is true that 

 country lasses in the old days did not 

 confine themselves, I fear, to decorous 

 gambols. They ran races in their smocks, 

 which Rowlandson delighted to portray, 

 and the squire and the parson and their 

 wives looked on. The ladies went racing, 

 too, with just as great glee as their hus- 

 bands. I have mentioned some of them 

 in Queen Anne's reign already. The first 

 I can find since then in the Yorkshire 

 records is Mrs. Carr, whose Dancer ran 

 for the King's Plate at Hambleton in 

 1717. She was the forerunner of a num- 

 ber of fair owners, who exhibited none of 

 the timidity to which the noms de guerre 

 of modern racing ladies seem to bear wit- 

 ness. Mrs. Layton's bay horse was in for 

 the Royal Plate at Hambleton in 1719. 

 Mrs. Betty Savile's Foxhuntcr ran at York in 1724. Lady Lowther's b. m. Cuzzoni 

 was in for the Galloways Plate there in 1730, and Mrs. Meeke's b. g. Merry 

 Andrew won the same race in 1733. The Routh family, of Snape Hall, Bedale, were 

 all especially ardent sportswomen. Miss Judith had a gr. h. Nutmeg at Don- 

 caster in 1736 ; Miss Betty was particularly lucky ; at York she won the $o Plate in 

 1 742 with her gr. h. Rid (by Crab out of Doll), ridden by C. Jackson, and the King's 

 Plate in 1744 with her bl. h. Othello, by Oroonoko out of the Warlock Galloway by 

 Snake, and the ^"50 Plate again in 1747 with her ch. h. Stadtholder'by Roundhead (dam 

 by Bartletf s Childcrs), ridden by Thomas Jackson ; the third sister, Miss Dolly, also 

 won the Ladies' Plate, at the 1744 Meeting, with her b. h. Crazy, by the Devonshire 

 Childers, out of Tb/> J s Dam, a horse which she had previously tried without success in 

 the ^50 Plate the year before. To these lively ladies we may add Lady Coningsby, 

 whose roan h. Ruby by Newton's Arabian saved his stakes, ridden by Jackson, in the 

 Ladies' Plate at York in 1 739 ; the Duchess of Gordon, whose grey filly, Highland 

 Lassie, was ridden by Thomas Tidingmaii at York in 1750; and Miss Hales, whose 



By permission of Walker & Boutall. George II. 



By Michael Dahl. 



