RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



The following year was convulsed with rival publications by Mr. B. Walker, and 

 Messrs. Fawconer and Tuting, who seem to have combined the functions of Secretary 

 to the Jockey Club and Keeper of the Match Book. But in 1774, after a slight 

 altercation, Mr. James Weatherby vindicated his right to the publications his family 

 has ever since controlled, and began a course of intimately allied business which grew 

 so large that by the beginning of the twentieth century the Jockey Club found 

 themselves compelled to reorganise the affairs which the genius of the Weatherbys 

 had so enormously increased and improved. From Hamilton Street, Park Lane, to 

 Bury Street, St. James's, to Oxenden Street, Haymarket, and finally to Old 

 Burlington Street, its present locality, their place of business has moved at one time 

 or another, always retaining its reputation and continually increasing its value and 

 its multifarious operations. Solicitor, treasurer, agent, keeper of the Match Book, 

 publisher of the Calendar and stake-holder all these things a Weatherby has been 

 since 1750, and all of them have been accomplished to the credit of the Jockey Club 

 and of the English Turf. 



No less important, and no less honourable, was the connection that began at this 

 same period, when Richard Tattersall, an honest Yorkshireman of humble origin, set up 

 as an auctioneer of horses in London, after leaving his post of superintendent of the 

 stables of the Duke of Kingston. The architect of his own fortunes, Mr. Tattersall 

 left his descendants an untarnished name that has become a household. word in every 

 country where racing is encouraged ; a fine business in full swing ; Highflyer Hall 

 and an estate near Ely. Perhaps his little expedition into Journalism was the one 

 thing that might have been regretted, from the financial point of view, but it had no 

 effect upon his reputation, and after living for many years to give the toast of " The 

 Hammer and Highflyer," he died. "Yet," says the epitaph that then appeared, 

 " as long as the recollection of honest work, sociable manners, and hospitality 

 unbounded shall be clear to the memory of man, the remembrance of him shall 

 live : surviving the slender aid of the proud Pyramid, the boasted durability of 

 Brass, and the Wreck of Ages ! " His place of business has now been removed 

 from Hyde Park Corner to the no less convenient site at Albert Gate, Knightsbridge. 

 In 1772 was appointed the first regular Judge at Newmarket to complete this 

 slight sketch of Turf officialdom in the person of Mr. John Hilton, who was to be 

 seen at Epsom, Brocket Hall, Bibury, and elsewhere. He was succeeded by the 

 family of Clark, who seemed likely to establish a dynasty as long lived as the 

 Weatherbys or Tattersalls, till the last of them was succeeded by Mr. Robinson. 



