268 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book XL 



royal and distinguished patrons, regretting our inability 

 to discover anything concerning the competitors for 

 the Cup, which, although one of the most important 

 races, is nevertheless one about which the least is 

 known. The expenses of the king and queen in their 

 journeys from Whitehall to Audley End and New- 

 market, in the months of September and November, 

 1668, is returned in the accounts of the Cofferer of 

 Wardrobe, at ^1485 a^s. <^\d.^ 



In the absence of further information of the races 

 we may be pardoned for going out of our way in a 

 cruise on board the Henrietta yacht f in company with 

 the king and the Duke of York. Harwich and 

 Aldborough were visited, where forts were designed by 

 the king, " with a leaden pencil and a ruler," in emula- 

 tion of his great contemporary Vauban, to the supposed 

 terror of the Dutch, When these national defences 

 were planned, the king returned to Audley End to find 

 some of his horses stolen during his absence ; the pro- 

 jected second October royal visit to Newmarket was 

 apparently abandoned in consequence : Ormond,^®" 

 Buckingham, and other officers of state " who remained 

 behind at Newmarket " having been summoned to 

 attend the king at Audley End, in Essex, prior to his 

 return to London. | 



* Scries i., box E, rot. s. d. MS., P.R.O. 



t " Charles II. took as much interest in his navy as he was capable of 

 taking in anything apart from his sensual pleasures, and this circumstance 

 inspired the sailors with a zeal which there was little else in the nature of 

 their treatment to create. Yachting then became a fashion ; with charac- 

 teristic frivolity Charles even had a vessel moored opposite to Whitehall, 

 in which he might fancy himself at sea. This childish hobby was 

 appropriately named The Folly, and formed one among the many lounging 

 places of the Court." — Warburton, 3, 470. 



% Stale Papers, Dom., Charles II., No. 143, 193. 



