HORSE-RACING IN ENGLAND 



invasion, but it is hardly worth the pains. The 

 English turf, as it now exists, dates from no 

 earlier than the reign of King Charles II., of 

 merry memory, during which period the sport 

 grew so rapidly in favour with the people, both 

 high and low, that the horse-races at New- 

 market would attract as many as a thousand 

 horsemen, to say nothing of carriages and of 

 tlie rabble on foot. The turf, moreover, was 

 confined at that time, in the sense in which 

 the term is now used, almost entirely to New- 

 market ; and with the doings there it will, there- 

 fore, be proper to commence a synoptical review 

 of the development attained by the institution. 

 The simplest course will be to set out, reign by 

 reign, a few facts concerning the most prominent 

 personages, horses, and events connected with 

 the racing of each period. 



Charles II., who reigned from 1660 to 1685, 

 set the fashion of two meetings at Newmarket — 

 one in the spring and the other in the autumn. 

 There were in those days, apparently, no profes- 

 sional jockeys of the kind with which we are now 

 familiar, though there were men called grooms 

 and boys called riders, who both of them rode 



