46 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



being of the value of forty guineas, the other ten 

 guineas less than that sum. In the following 

 year one race also of the value of forty-two pounds 

 took place. For some years afterwards the racing 

 at Ascot was of an intermittent sort, as no sport 

 took place in the years 1729, 173 1-4, nor yet in 

 the years 1737-8, nor in 1740-3. A Yeoman 

 Pricker's Plate of ^50, for hunters only, was insti- 

 tuted in 1744, and, twenty-five years later, namely, 

 in 1769, the Members and Corporation of Windsor 

 each subscribed ^50 to be raced for. The Duke 

 took immense interest in the sport at Ascot, 

 which, in its earlier days, was of a somewhat 

 primitive kind, as were the surroundings vastly 

 different in every way from what they are to-day. 



" A memory has been kept up " of some 

 races contested on the Royal ground, more par- 

 ticularly of one race, the Oatlands Stakes, run 

 on the 28th of June, 1791, when it was said a 

 hundred thousand pounds changed hands. The 

 victorious horse on the occasion was the Prince 

 of Wales's Baronet, which won the race from 

 eighteen competitors. There were forty-one sub- 

 scribers of a hundred guineas each, half forfeit, 

 and the value of the stakes to the owner of the 

 winning horse was 2,950 gs. The race is 

 said to have been witnessed by about 40,000 

 persons ; but order was so badly maintained that 

 the venue of the race was shifted in the next year 

 to Newmarket, where the Oatlands Stakes was 

 run for in April, the money value involved being 

 3,725 gs., a large sum for those days. 



During the close of the last century, Ascot 

 races enjoyed immense popularity ; they lasted 

 for a week, and afforded a fund of amusement to 



