90 HORSE-RACING IN ENGLAND 



It was in the reign of George III. that notice 

 is first taken in the records of the horrid practice 

 of ' nobbhng.' It had probably existed, from what 

 we know of horse-racing, as long as horse-racing 

 itself ; but we find no mention of it even at the 

 very likely time of the famous match which Old 

 Merlin won against Mr. Tregonwell Frampton's 

 horse at Newmarket, in the reign either of 

 William III. or of Anne; and the earliest in- 

 stance given is in 1772, when, on the eve of a 

 sweepstakes at York, for which a Mr. Barlow's 

 gelding, named Rosebud, was favourite in the 

 betting, ' some villains broke into the stable where 

 Rosebud stood, and gave him a dose of poison.' 



This was in the merry month of May. And 

 in September of the same year occurred the 

 next recorded instance (again in Yorkshire), when 

 'some malicious persons got into the stable where 

 Tosspot [Mr. Pratt's, of Askrigg] stood, and gave 

 him a dose of physick the night before he was to 

 run ' in a race at Scarborough, according to the 

 Racing Calendar (Tuting and Fawconer's) of that 

 day. Then came the case (once more in York- 

 shire) of Mr. Bethell's excellent mare. Miss 

 Nightingale (by Match'em), that was to have run 



