704 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



in 1899, after having taken part in the Diamond Jubilee Procession of two 

 years before. 



It is interesting to recall that the central figure of that Procession, our late 

 revered sovereign Queen Victoria, though never a patroness of the Jockey Club, 

 saw her husband's name in the Calendar of 1 848 as breeder of a colt by Sir Hercules 

 from an Elis mare, and approved the accession of her eldest son to the Turf 

 Parliament in 1864. Her personal acquaintance with Racing was much older than 

 either of these events. When only eleven, she was present with her mother at 

 the Worcester Meeting when Mr. Ormsby Gore's Hesperus won the Gold Cup on 

 the very day when William IV. won the Goodwood Cup with Fleur de Lys, and 

 sailed into second and third places as well. In 1831 she saw, from the Stewards' 

 Stand at Epsom, Lord Jersey's Riddlesworth and the King's Mustachio colt beaten 

 by the outsider Spaniel. In 1834, dressed in "a muslin pelisse lined with primrose- 

 coloured silk, a white chip bonnet, ornamented with a small bouquet of roses, and 

 a wreath of the same flowers round her forehead," she saw Mr. W. Day's Isabel 

 win the ^"70 cup given by the Duchess of Kent, the length of each heat being 

 two miles and a distance. The next season the Princess Victoria not only attended 

 the East Sussex Hunt Races on the Lewes course, but presented the prize with 

 a neat little speech to Mr. Ellman. It was more than sixty years before her son's 

 Persimmon got home on Doncaster Town Moor, that Queen of Triimps most 

 appropriately won the St. Leger under the eyes of the Princess Victoria on the only 

 occasion when she saw the great race of the North. She was always fond of Ascot, 

 and her last visit was associated with an even more famous heroine of the Turf, 

 for Charlton exhibited Blink Bonny to her and Lord Palmerston after the mare 

 had walked over for a sweepstakes. 



After the death of Prince Albert, the Queen never went racing again. But 

 her name will always be associated with the Royal Stud at Hampton Court, which 

 was started again by Charles Greville after it had been sold on the death of 

 William IV. ; for from those historic paddocks came Sainfoin, Memoir, La Flee he, 

 Julius, Julius C&sar, Springfield, Diophantus, and many more, until all were sold 

 again at Tattersall's in July, 1894. Springfield, it should be remembered, was one 

 of the very best sprinters we have ever had. He only failed twice ; in the Criterion 

 and in the Dewhurst Stakes which Kisber won. He beat Silvio in the Champion 

 Stakes Across the Flat, and in the July Cup at Newmarket he fairly made hacks 

 of Ecossais, of Trappist, who won the Wokingham Stakes under gst. tolb., and of 



