1G33-1634.] THE GOLD CUP. 95 



next, to bee at London on friday. Mame will bee 

 gone in the begining of the next weeke : And I could 

 wish a stay made of al letters to mee, that can not bee 

 receaued here by twesday noone in this place. This 

 day the races for running horses wil bee come ended 

 w*'' the genral course for the gilden cup.* His Ma"® 

 (god bee thancked) is in perfect health and at this 

 p'"sent is at tenis. The queen also is wel though shee 

 had taken a little cold. I shal not need to write anie 

 thing concerning Wallensteins death w*"'' I know you 

 receaued fro' al handes. What wil be the effects, 

 tyme will disclose : this only I find considerable, that 

 it hath brought sm hopes and designs of the French 

 to a stande. So I take leaue and remaine your 

 assured loving brother and seruant, John Coke." f 



Charles Franckland, writing from St. Ann's Street, 

 London, March 20, 1630-4, says: "My Landlord the 

 Earle of Southampton,^^^ they say hath lost 

 a great deal of monie now latelie at the 

 horse race at Newmarkett, but true it is, he hath 

 licence to travell for three years, & is gone in all hast 

 into France." \ 



15* Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl OF SOUTHAMPTON, 

 was a staunch supporter of King Charles I., was installed a 

 Knight of the Garter at the Restoration, and was constituted 



* In Murray's Handbook for Cambridgeshire (Edt. Lond., 1870, 

 p. 389), it is said that " the first races were held at Newmarket in the 

 reign of Charles I. ; ' Bay Tarrall ' being the celebrated horse that ' won the 

 cup ' in that reign." No authority is given for this statement, nor have we 

 been able to discover any contemporary confirmation of it, except in 

 Shirley's comedy of Hyde Park. 



t State Papers, Dom., vol. cclxii., No. 68 (129) [-68]. 



X Ibid., vol. cclxiii., No. 20 (51 ^. 



