154 HORSE-RACING IN ENGLAND 



Winners in the Great Races — Colour, Height, and 

 Nomenclature of Race-horses — General Condition of the 

 Turf — George IV,, Escape, and Mr. John Kent. 



The reign of her Most Gracious Majesty Queen 

 Victoria opened in a manner which did not look 

 well for the future of the turf, so far as royal 

 patronage was concerned ; and yet, during that 

 reign, which has already been almost as long as 

 that of her Majesty's grandfather, George III., 

 who reigned longer than any English monarch 

 up to his date, and whose two sons between them 

 did not attain to a third of his ' record,' the turf, 

 though it has undergone in many respects a 

 complete transformation, has reached — in point 

 of the royal, imperial, and general patronage 

 bestowed upon it, at home and abroad, of the 

 stupendous sums of money spent, lost, and gained 

 upon it, of the thousands who live, and of the 

 tens of thousands who are ruined or crippled by 

 it, of the ' monster ' prizes offered, of the im- 

 portance arrogated to themselves by successful 

 members of the betting ring, who claim to be 

 regarded as plying a perfectly legitimate and 

 respectable * business,' of the impetus given to 

 blood-horse-breeding, and of the wonderful in- 

 crease in the number, if not the excellence, of the 



