2 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



know it to-day, has undoubtedly been elaborated 

 from those simple trials of equine strength that 

 took place centuries ago, which may, in many 

 instances, have been arranged to promote the 

 selling of horses. 



" Look ye, sir, let us try our horses against 

 each other, and if yours prove better than mine 

 I'll buy it," is a saying that might represent the 

 idea entertained ; and so, on an improvised course, 

 ridden very likely by their owners — " owners up " 

 — at what are called catch-weights, there would 

 off hand be run a race of the kind indicated. At 

 village feasts, fairs, and other gatherings of a 

 popular kind, as has been often told, races of 

 a rough-and-ready sort — precursors of the more 

 elaborate meetings with which the public are now 

 familiar — were long ago run. 



Accustomed as we have long been to very 

 complete records of racing, we look with some 

 impatience on the dry fragments and supposi- 

 titious statements, in which are embodied what is 

 known regarding the birth of horse-racing. Our 

 public journals day by day contain more in one 

 publication than can be gathered from the historic 

 records of the country about the horse-racing of 

 a hundred years, when the compiler requires to 

 carry his search back to days before good Queen 

 Bess began to reign. In those days neither " our 

 racing reporter " nor "our sporting correspondent " 

 had come upon the scene. 



We know more about the sports enjoyed in 

 olden times by the people of Greece and Italy 

 than we know about those of our own country. 

 There was, as all who please may read, an Oaks 

 in the Grecian Games of the 71st Olympiad, 496 



