The First Race Meetings 19 



Charleston had almost a continuous existence 

 from its creation up to the Revolutionary War. 

 After the Revolution, regular meetings were held 

 there up to 1791. 



And then, in that year, there came into life one 

 of the most brilliant racing organizations which 

 has ever been known in this country, under the 

 name of the South Carolina Jockey Club. It is 

 good to read what the historians of South Caro- 

 lina have to say of this time when the little New- 

 market Course had for its successor so splendid 

 an establishment of ladies and gentlemen as the 

 Jockey Club. Referring to it, Dr. Irving, who 

 was secretary of the club for upward of forty 

 years, speaks of the Newmarket days with love's 

 labor, in these delightful terms : — 



" We will commence with the proceedings at 

 the New Market Course at Charleston, S.C., 

 season of 1786; and here it may be remarked 

 that if ever there was ' a golden age of racing ' in 

 South Carolina, or rather, if ever there was a 

 period destined to be the commencement of a 

 new era in the annals of racing in this state, that 

 period is the one to which we are now referring. 



"Whether we consider the elevated character 

 of the gentlemen of the Turf, the attraction that 



