8 SPORTING STORIES 



as being, on the whole, the most humanly interesting. It 

 has been gravely asserted by an eminent writer on British 

 sports, that "the sole object for which horse-racing was 

 originally established, and has since been supported by 

 the powers that be, is, confessedly, the encouragement of 

 the breed of English horses." 



I think the writer must have had his tongue in his cheek 

 when he penned that solemn piece of humbug. If horse- 

 racing had not appealed to the gambling and sporting 

 instincts of mankind, it would have died a natural death 

 ages ago. There was never a time in its history when 

 wagering was not inseparably connected with it. Let old 

 Robert Burton bear witness to the truth of my assertion in 

 his Anatomy of Melancholy, published in 162 1, in which 

 he says : " Riding of great horses, runnings at rings, tilts, 

 and tournaments, horse races, wild goose chases, which are 

 disports for the great, are good in themselves, though many 

 gentlemen by that means gallop quite out of their fortunes." 

 Clearly, then, there were plungers in Burton's day who 

 ruined themselves by betting on horse-races. 



In the very same year the Scottish Parliament passed 

 an Act to prevent "excessive wagering on horse-races, the 

 same having caused great scandal in the kingdom." And a 

 hundred years later John Lawrence, the greatest authority 

 of his day on horses and racing, writes : — 



" On the connection of games of chance with the horse- 

 course it is perfectly useless to declaim, since they are a 

 natural concomitant, indissolubly blended with a sport 

 which seems destined to interest the passions of a portion 

 of the higher classes. In fact, to take away from the Turf 

 its pecuniary interest, were that possible, would be to de- 

 prive it of one of its greatest attractions and most powerful 

 spurs to emulation." 



But enough on this point : let me pass to individual 

 instances of old-time gambling on race-horses. The first 

 great plunger of whom I have any record was George 

 Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, one of the most remarkable 

 men even in " the spacious times of great Elizabeth." If 

 you look him up in any dictionary of biography you will 

 find him designated "eminent naval commander"; though 



