32 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I. 



assiduity. At the commencement of the Wars of the 

 Roses, Borso of Este, created Duke of Ferrara by 

 Pope Pius II., obtained many of the best thoroughbreds 

 our country possessed, with which he augmented 

 his stud, and probably made it one of the best to 

 be found at that time in the world. His successor, 

 Duke Hercules, likewise obtained some of the best 

 strains it was possible to procure in England and 

 Ireland.* Many of these, especially the Eltham breed, 

 were at the Mantua paddocks highly prized and 

 carefully preserved, so much so, that the strain of 

 English blood {equi. Brit?) was carefully transmitted 

 and reintroduced into this country in 1515. 



From the earliest times horses could be taken for the 

 service of the king without warrant (see Mag. Car, Statutes — 

 25 Edw. I., c. 21 ; -^^6 Edw. III., cc. 4, 5). In the reign of 



* The four first Marquises of Este were brought into juxtaposition 

 with England from 1377 to 1450, and originally bore the title of "Vicar 

 of the See Apostolic in Ferrara." Marquis Leonello took for his second 

 wife Maria, natural daughter of Alfonso of Aragon, who expelled Rdn^ of 

 Anjo from Naples on the ist of June, 1442. On the 30th of May, 1445, 

 King Rand's daughter, Marguerite, was crowned Queen of England in 

 Westminster Hall. Early in her tempestuous reign we find the beautiful 

 young queen evincing her solicitude for the cultivation of letters and race- 

 horses. She founded Queen's College in Cambridge, and sent her Master 

 of the Horse, Reynold Chicheley, with a draft of horses from the Eltham ^ 

 stud to the Marquis, who was so pleased with the present, and knowing 

 the queen's predilection for literature, that he appointed Chicheley to the 

 renowned office of rector of the "Alimental University" of Ferrara 

 {insigne officiwn rectoratiis alini studii hi iirbc I'estra Ferrarte/ise), for 

 which she returned most hearty thanks. 



1 Eltham was recently celebrated for the stud of the late Mr. 

 Blenkiron. On his death, in 1872, it was sold by Messrs. Tattersall, 

 when the sale realized ^107,100. It was finally sold off in 1883. The 

 Middle Park Plate, founded in 1866, and still a great two-year-old prize at 

 Newmarket, unintentionally perpetuates associations of the Turf and 

 thoroughbred horses of an almost forgotten age ! 



