SMITHFIELD RACES. 79 



comparatively speaking, very recent times, no lieed has been 

 given to the statistics of agricultm-al or animal improvement, 

 and little mention made of such matters, beyond a casual and 

 passing notice, even by the best historians. 



" The English," proceeds the work from which I quote, " had 

 now " — that is to say in the reign of Heniy I. — " become sen- 

 sible of the value and breed of their horses ; and in the twelfth 

 century a regular race-course had been established in London, 

 this being no other than Smitlifield, which was at once horse- 

 market and race-course. Fitz Stephen, who lived at that period, 

 gives the following account of the contests between the i^alfreys 

 of the day. 



" ' When a race is to be run by horses, which in their kind 

 are strong and fleet, a shout is raised, and common horses are 

 ordered to withdraw from out the way. Two jockeys then, or 

 sometimes three, as the match may be made, prepare them- 

 selves for the contest, such as are used to ride, and know how 

 to manage their horses with judgment, the grand point being 

 to prevent a competitor from getting before them. The horses 

 on their part are not without emulation. They tremble, and 

 are impatient and continually in motion. At last the signal 

 once given, they hurry along with unremitting velocity; the 

 jockeys inspired with the thoughts of aijj)lause and the hopes 

 of victory, clapping spurs to their willing steeds, brandishing 

 their whips, and cheering them with their cries.' 



" This is a quaint and amusing picture of the dawning spirit 

 of horse-racing. Crossing was evidently an acknowledged ac- 

 complishment, and personal flagellations between competing 

 jockeys not unfrequently resulted from excess of emulation. 

 Fertile indeed must have been their imaginations, if they 

 dreamed that their racing frolics would, in process of time, 

 grow into an important national speculation ; much less could 

 they have anticipated that their unsophisticated pastimes were 

 the embryo of that fame, which has been acquired by England 

 through the medium of the race-horse. 



" This description, with the exception of the cries," — cross- 

 ing and flagellation also I presume excluded — " might have 

 formed part of the record of a modern race at Epsom, in the 

 columns of a morning paper ; so national is the English sport 



