ABOUT THE JOCKEY CLUB. 363 



there were stewards, however, eight years 

 previously, but the functions they fulfilled are not 

 known. From its beginning, the members of 

 the Jockey Club were persons of high social 

 position. 



Strictly speaking, the Jockey Club had no 

 authority or power to extend or enforce the 

 observance of their laws at any other meetings 

 than those held at Newmarket ; but it soon 

 became evident that a uniform and general 

 application of its rules or laws was desirable, 

 and therefore by a sort of tacit understanding 

 it gradually became customary for all race meet- 

 ings of importance to place themselves under 

 the laws of the Jockey Club by a general 

 consent and acknowledgment of its authority. 

 In many cases, however, there was a doubt 

 respecting the extent and power of application 

 of the said laws, and therefore, in 1831, the 

 Jockey Club notified that their rules and orders 

 applied to Newmarket only, but they recom- 

 mended their adoption to the stewards of other 

 races, and in places where they were publicly 

 adopted and recognised the Jockey Club would 

 investigate and decide on disputes submitted 

 to them for adjudication, but not otherwise. 

 It was also made a condition that when the 

 question or dispute submitted originated else- 

 where than at Newmarket, the statement of the 

 case must be reduced to writing, and must be 

 referred through or with the sanction of the 

 stewards of the races where it happened. 



I am indebted for these remarks which, so 

 far, indicate the rise of the Jockey Club to 

 power, to an anonymous volume published in 



