52 HORSE-RACING IN ENGLAND 



too exacting in that respect formerly may be 

 inferred from the ingenuous simplicity with which 

 Miss Betty Routh appears to have run in her 

 own name (or nomination) at Durham (in 1734) 

 and elsewhere a horse called Tom-come-tickle-me- 

 But as Miss Betty might have been quite a little 

 girl at the time, and the horse her father's, nomi- 

 nated in her name to please her, no sinister con- 

 clusions can be drawn from the circumstance. 



Jockeys have become persons of so much con- 

 sideration in these days that a few words about 

 their predecessors of old time may not be out of 

 place. In the reign of Henry VIII. there were 

 ' riders of the running geldings' in the royal stud, 

 but their names cannot be fully ascertained ; and 

 it is a question whether there were any jockeys, 

 in the present sense of the word, before the reign 

 of Charles II., when, according to Mr. J. B. 

 Muir, the 'boy riders' to the royal stables were 

 Peter Allibond, George Horniblowe (or Hornbi- 

 lowe), William Bungany, and John Smith, of 

 whom none can be claimed as a historical char- 

 acter. Far more historical were the o-entlemen- 

 jockeys of that reign, who, as we have seen, 

 included King Charles himself, his son (the Duke 



