PREFACE. 



Horse-racing in England, and the growth of the 

 institution which is commonly called the English 

 Turf, are subjects upon which information, both 

 general and particular, is requested intermittently, 

 whenever any great race is about to be decided, 

 by all sorts and conditions of men, as common ex- 

 perience proves. But the public interest in such 

 matters is not sufficiently absorbing or continuous 

 to secure a wide patronage for the ponderous 

 volumes, published at a correspondingly heavy 

 price, in which one or two attempts have been 

 made from time to time to satisfy what is a 

 constantly recurring, but nevertheless, with the 

 majority of mankind, a transient desire. It is 

 probable, however, that a single volume, neither 

 ponderous nor unduly expensive, and containing 

 not only a synoptical review, reign by reign, from 

 Charles II. to Victoria, of the development at- 

 tained by the turf and its accessories, with not an 



