Royal Ascot 



^«- 



but whether they introduced it into England is a matter 

 for conjecture ; traces, however, of race courses, evidently 

 dating from the period of their occupation, have been 

 found, but the records in connection with the early days 

 of the English Turf are very scarce indeed. When the 

 Romans invaded England it is said that their landing was 

 opposed by large numbers of men mounted on horses, and 

 from the Venerable Bede we learn that in a.d. 631, in 

 the reign of Edwin the Great, "the English first began 

 to saddle horses," Athelstane appears to have been the 

 first English King who patronised the Turf, and he 

 received some " running horses " from the Continent as 

 a present from Hugh Capet, a suitor for the hand of his 

 sister Ethelswitha. 



It is not until 1 1 74 that we have any direct evidence 

 that horse racing had become a sport in popular favour. 

 In his "Description of the City of London" William 

 Fitz-Stephen, the Secretary to Thomas A'Becket, Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury, in the reign of Henry II., writes 

 that " without one of the City gates is a certain plaine 

 field, Smoothfield (Smithfield), a noted meeting place for 

 fine horses brought together to be sold." Thither came 

 Barons, Lords, and Knights, and a goodly company from 

 the town eager to see the races or to purchase a likely 

 winner. 



During the time of the Crusaders the breed of horses 

 greatly improved, and contests on horseback formed 

 a favourite sport, but it was more in tournaments than 

 in racing that the horses were employed. King John 

 appears to have established a stud at Eltham in Kent. 

 Henry VIII. gave considerable attention to horse breeding 



