2IO THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book X. 



" Resolved, That a Proclamation be issued, prohibit- 

 ing all Horse-races, Cock-matches, Bull-baitings, Out- 

 hurlings, publick Wrestlings, and other Meetings, of 

 like Nature, until the First Day of October next, 

 1659." — Vide vol. vii., p. 715 a. 



Several writers have asserted that Oliver Cromwell 



was a Turfite, but none adduce the slightest authority 



in support of the alleration. The earliest 



Oliver Crom- ^ ^ _ '^ 



weu as a among those scribes was Lawrence, who in 

 his "History of the Horse" (vol. i., p. 218) 

 says, " Cromwell had his stud of race-horses." Later 

 " The Druid " wrote as follows : — 



" The wily Cromwell was not altogether indifferent to the 

 breed of running horses, and with one of the stallions in his 

 stud — Place's White Turk — do the oldest of our pedigrees 

 end. He had also a famous brood-mare, called the Coffin- 

 Mare, from the circumstance of her being concealed in a vault 

 during the search for his effects at the time of the Restora- 

 tion. Mr. Place, stud-groom to Cromwell, was a conspicuous 

 character in those days, and, according to some, the White 

 Turk was his individual propert}^" — The " Quarterly Review," 

 vol. xlix., p. 385. 



No contemporary authority is vouchsafed for these 

 and similar assertions, which have been reiterated 

 ad nauseam by sporting writers from time to time, in 

 all sorts of publications relating to the turf.* It is, 

 however, most probable that these statements are 



1653. * " Oliver Cromwell keeps a stud of race-horses. 



1654. " Cromwell prohibits races for six months. 



" Cromwell again prohibits races for eight months."— 

 Atjril 8 Townsend " Manual of Dates." London, 1S82, Fifth ed., 

 P- 473- 



