252 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



under a penalty of / 200. At Newmarket and Black Hambleton alone matches for 

 less than 50 might be arranged. Naturally this drastic and dogmatic announce- 

 ment of weights could not last long, and five years later it was declared lawful for 

 anyone to run for a .50 Plate at any weights and at any place ; for it was hoped that 

 the Royal Plates of a hundred guineas each given by His Majesty every year in various 

 parts of the kingdom would prove a sufficient encouragement to breeders to raise a 

 horse of speed, strength, and staying powers. 



Of course, however, this Act of 1745 had much more far-reaching consequences 

 than that of merely withdrawing an unpopular measure. It may almost be considered 

 to have taken the first step towards modern light-weight racing, though the various 

 stages of development cannot be traced just now. The scale of weights prescribed at 

 the same time for the Royal Plates was : 4-year-olds, 10 st. 4 Ib. ; 5 -year-olds, i ist. 

 6 Ib. ; 6 and aged, 12 st. ; races decided in four-mile heats. But it is evident that the 

 dead set made by the authorities against small horses did not have very much practical 

 effect nor we re such wonderful animals as Little Driver, or Highlander (14 hands 

 i inch, and the best of his size to win a Royal Plate) who was a stallion at Hampton 

 Court in 1 758, or Gimcrack likely to encourage any popular belief in such ideas for the 

 " Give and Take " Plates which were common at the beginning of the eighteenth century 

 lasted till well into the nineteenth. In these the horses entered carried weight for age 

 and weight for inches. They were made to stand upon a stone 6 ft. 4 in. long by 3 ft. 

 3 in. broad, at each end of which were cut deep lines, 2 ft. long and 5 ft. distant 

 from each other, these last measurements being intended to prevent a horse spreading 

 his fore or his hind feet out too wide, or extending his forelegs too far from his hind 

 ones. The usual scale, says Mr. John Orton, Clerk of the Course at York in 1839 

 (some time after these races had been given up), was that aged horses of " thirteen 

 hands carried 7 st. and for every additional eighth of an inch an extra 14 oz." Six- 

 year-olds enjoyed a reduced scale of 4 Ib. less weight, and five-year-olds had 1 2 Ib. 

 less, but of course the details were entirely at the option of the promoters of the prize. 

 The Royal Plates numbered 18 in England and Scotland in 1760, and by 1807 there 

 were 23 ; and no doubt the foundation of the St. Leger, Oaks, and Derby had an 

 effect upon the old conditions, which were certainly altered in 1773 and 1799. It may 

 be noted here that in 1785, the second year of Pitt's first administration, he proposed 

 a tax on every horse which ran for a Plate. Lord Surrey suggested, as an alternative, 

 ^"50 on every winner of a certain sum. Pitt imposed both ; without, however, affecting 

 the Turf to any noticeable degree. 



