1G54.] POPULARITY OF THE TURF. 117 



bishop's court — He is admonished — Order for his examination — 

 Attached — Respited — ^Has to proceed to proof — Asks for his petition 

 to be read — The verdict — His subsequent career — Memoir — The 

 popularity of the races in Hyde Park — Other references to them — 

 Stamford — Antiquity of this meeting — The fixture — The cup — Its 

 value — How provided — Bull-baiting at Stamford — Its origin^Win- 

 chester — Heavy betting — Ber\vick-on-Tvveed — The meeting sup- 

 pressed by the Royalists — Incidents, etc. — Lord Clifford — Sir Jacob 

 Astley — Mayor Fenwick — The Earl of Essex — The Marquis of 

 Huntley — The Earl of Home's brother — The King and court at 

 Berwick — March of the expedition against the Scots — Epsom — 

 Probability of race-meetings held there — Racing in Yorkshire — 

 Ascomb Moor, Hambleton, and Tollerton meetings — The Knaves- 

 mire^The Hague— Introduction of the Turf into Holland — Racing 

 under difficulties — Hcjuy Vcrncy. 



According to Colonel Sir Edward Harvvood, horse- 

 racing was firmly rooted in England early in the seven- 

 teenth century. Our authority — who, be it remembered, 

 had puritanical predilections, and probably biassed 

 opinions on this subject — condemned the Turf as 

 injurious to the cultivation of good horses ! His 

 assertion that this kingdom was more defective in 

 good horses at this period {c. 1642) than at any other, 

 is manifestly inaccurate. "The defects consist chiefly," 

 he says, " in want of fit horses, and fit men to bee 

 horse-men, which I take to bee the greater want of the 

 two, and can but wonder, that so great a kingdome 

 should bee so defective in so brave and noble a strength, 

 wherein our nearest neighbours so abound ; in ancient 

 times we were not so, it may bee one reason is, that 

 nozo 02ir Nation is more addicted to rimniiig and hunt- 

 ing horses, than in those elder times T He proposes to 

 have a " stronger " breed of horses, suitable for heavy 

 cavalry, in place of the swift, which he disparages as 

 unsuitable "for the defence of their King and Country," 



