FIRST PERIOD : CHARLES II. TO GEORGE II. 7 



or ' The Merry Monarch ' continues to be regis- 

 tered as the winner of the Derby in 1845 ; and it 

 is worthy of remark that in the sixteenth year of 

 his reign was passed the first statutory enactment 

 intended to restrict the practice of betting on 

 horse-races and of gambling on sports and pas- 

 times in general. Oddly enough, the statute did 

 not interfere with the betting of ready money, 

 any amount of which might be lost and won, pro- 

 vided that it changed hands at the time ; but not 

 more than ^100 might be won and lost on credit. 

 Our latest legislation, on the contrary, has been 

 directed chiefly against ready-money transactions, 

 where a sum is paid over at once or deposited, 

 and has left undisturbed, if it has not actually 

 encouraged, the bettor ' on the nod '; that is, on 

 credit. 



James II. had so short and so troubled a reign 

 that we could hardly expect to find him figuring, 

 during his brief tenure of active kingship, as a 

 very notable promoter of horse-racing and im- 

 prover of English horses ; but as Duke of York 

 he had displayed proclivities towards ' the sport 

 of kings/ had been with his brother King Charles 

 at Newmarket when the accidental fire at the 



