322 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book V. 



racing as " an exercise of profaneness," and lamented that it 

 should have been " diligently followed by many of our gentle- 

 men, and by many of inferior ranck also," who, "of their 

 weekly and almost daily meetings, and matches on their 

 bowling greenes, of their lavish betting of great wagers in such 

 sorry trifles, and of their stout and strong abbeting of so sillie 

 vanaties amongst hundreds, sometimes thousands, of rude 

 and vile persons, to whom they should give better, and not 

 so bad example and encouragement, as to be idle in neglect- 

 ing their callings ; wasteful in gameing and spending their 

 meanes ; wicked in cursing and swearing ; and dangerously 

 profane, in their brawling and quarreling." * 



" Mr. Blunt, a greate gamester, maruelous franke, and a 

 lelunt cauelier." f 



" Three things which make others poore make Alderman 

 Lee, now Lord Maior, rich, — wine, women, and dice ; he was 

 fortunat in marrying riche wives, lucky in great gaming at 

 dice, and prosperous in the sale of his wines." % 



George Villiers, ist Duke of Buckingham, who 

 in many respects was closely connected with the Turf, as an 

 owner and breeder of race-horses, was born on August 20, 

 1 592, at Brookesby, in Leicestershire, and was the son of Sir 

 George Villiers. At an early age he was sent to a private 

 school in that county. When he was about eighteen, he 

 travelled on the Continent, where he acquired a knowledge 

 of the French language, and some of the accomplishments of 

 the noblesse, such as fencing and dancing, in which last he 

 particularly excelled. Soon after his return to England, his 

 mother, who was a sagacious and canny woman, is said to 

 have introduced him at court ; concluding probably, and not 

 without some reason, that a young gentleman of his physique 

 and accomplishments could not fail of making his fortune 

 under such a monarch as James L Another version is that 

 the king first encountered Villiers at a horse-race at Linton, 

 in Cambridgeshire, where the latter " lived in a stable and 



* Biography of Bruen. t Manningham's Ti'i^xy, sub dato Nov. 10, 1602. 

 % Ibid,, March 30, 1603. 



