PREFACE ix 



a few incidents occurred which could not be 

 noticed at their proper place in the text. P'or 

 instance, the Jockey Club received an accession of 

 royalty in the person of the Duke of York ; and 

 Isinglass became entitled to be added to the 

 number of horses (p. 66) that have run the Derby 

 in 2 minutes 43 seconds, the shortest time on record. 

 Moreover, a subsequent personal examination of 

 the letter from Swift to Stella, referred to at 

 p. 14, has led me to doubt whether my authority 

 was right in assuming that the horse-race men- 

 tioned by the Dean took place at Ascot, which is 

 not expressly named in the letter. It strikes me 

 as more probable that the scene of the race was 

 Windsor Forest, where races seem to have been 

 run as early, certainly, as 1699, if not before. 

 Still, there appears to be no doubt whatever that 

 Queen Anne attended races at Ascot in 17 12, if 

 not in 171 1. 



It may be well to add, lest anybody should not 

 see at once why stress has been laid upon the 

 ages of certain jockeys here and there, that the 

 ' wasting ' which the jockey's vocation entails is 

 supposed very commonly to be injurious, and to 

 shorten life. But there is reason to think that 



