CHAPTER XIII. 



RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



" SURE life's but a race where each man runs his best ; 

 If distanced or thrown a bad match is the jest ; 

 Each strives to be foremost and get the first in, 

 For he is but a bubble who don't wish to win. 



A statesman starts eager to get to the post 



Where he who can jockey his rival gains most 



The world may be properly called the Round Course 

 Where sweetness and management often beats force. 

 A match that's made well here makes Noblemen smile, 

 When a feather beats weight o'er the Abingdon Mile." 



r I "'HE sporting poet who indited the verses which I have placed at the head of 

 this chapter had keenly appreciated, in 1776, the large share which the Turf 

 had taken in the social and political life of the time. I have sketched in earlier 

 pages of this volume a few of the more prominent men and women who were as 

 distinguished in one direction as they were in the other ; and I have indicated the 

 most famous of the horses which from this period onwards have influenced the 

 fortunes of every racecourse in the world. But before the nineteenth century begins 

 it remains for me to name a few more of those thoroughbreds who were by no 

 means less interesting to contemporary owners because their future influence upon 

 posterity has not been so striking as in the case of other animals, and I must also fill 

 in a little more of the light and shade in the picture of the sportsman's life which 

 I am endeavouring to place before my readers. This is not a complete chronicle of 

 Racing. Nothing short of a small library could hold that. But it is an attempt to 

 select a few typical instances out of a very large number, whict. may serve as a basis 

 for certain generalisations, and may be verified from the more extended records 

 that are open to the investigations of all. It seems to me that just as Racing and 

 all the strength of its fiery impulses and ambitions have been too often omitted from 

 previous characterisations both of eras and of men, so the influence of these men them- 



