82 HORSE-RACING IN ENGLAND 



horse-racing, and the ownership of race-horses — 

 which {exceptis excipiendis, and the exceptions 

 were very few) had, up to the date of that statute, 

 been confined to ' kings,' nobihty, and gentry, for 

 the most part — within the conception and the 

 reach of httle men and men of straw, who pre- 

 viously would almost as soon have thought of 

 keeping a white elephant as of possessing and 

 running a race-horse of their own. Such persons, 

 having been induced by Queen Anne's statute to 

 run so-called race-horses, mostly tripeds, all over 

 the country, as instruments, there is reason to 

 suppose, of more or less paltry gambling, and as 

 a means of carrying out more or less sinister 

 designs, gradually increased the scope and scale 

 of their operations, when the remedial statutes 

 of George II. came into force. 



So that early in the reign of George III. 

 we find, not only among the ' legs,' as the 

 members of the betting proletariat were de- 

 nominated, but among purchasers, owners, 

 and runners of great race-horses, with dis- 

 tinguished pedigrees and four sound legs, such 

 gentry as Messrs. Quick and Castle, who are 

 among the earliest instances of ' warning off' (by 



