RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



343 





sought after; "Spangles," as the parti-coloured birds were called, were never found 

 to be so high-spirited, so good in feather, blood, or heel, as the complete blackreds. 

 Consummate art was needed in feeding up the champions for a three days' battle, or 

 in handling and setting the birds at the moment of the contest. Far less were the 

 excuses for that much more ignoble form of " sport " known as bull-baiting. But this, 

 too, lasted much too long in English country-life, and it may perhaps be put down to 

 the credit of the Turf that many found a substitute in horse-racing for the cruelties 

 and brutalities of the bull-ring. 



As the organisation of racing went on, we find King's Plates established in many 

 places which might otherwise have satisfied the universal gambling instinct of the 

 people with much 

 less creditable and 

 useful attractions. I 

 have reproduced an 

 incident that hap- 

 pened at the Lincoln 

 Meeting in 1797. 

 There were also 

 King's Plates at New- 

 market, Salisbury, 

 Ipswich, Guildford, 

 Nottingham, Win- 

 chester, York, Rich- 

 mond (Yorkshire), 

 Lewes, Canterbury, Lichfield, Newcastle, Bradford, Carlisle, Ascot, and War- 

 wick. Though Yorkshire was easily first in the number of its race meetings, 

 Cambridgeshire could boast of four at least in Newmarket alone, Suffolk 

 had four, and there was scarcely a county that was not patronised at least 

 once in the year, except Devonshire and Cornwall. But it was naturally at 

 Newmarket, Ascot, Doncaster, or Epsom that were to be seen most often the purple 

 waistcoat with the gold-trimmed scarlet sleeves of the Prince of Wales, the purple 

 and gold of the Duke of York, the sky-blue of the Duke of Grafton, or the deep red 

 of the Duke of Oueensberry. With them was the Earl of Derby, who married Miss 

 Farren, the actress whose " Lady Teazle " in Sheridan's brilliant comedy had 

 stormed the footlights of the town. He was the founder of the famous race that 



By permission of Mr. 

 Somerville Tattersall. 



'Hornpipe" leu ping over " Pepper pot" and the 

 Farmer's Son, at Lincoln Races, Sept. 1797. 



