Royal Ascot "^ 



and Mr. S. Stanley's Rat Trap, for a sweepstakes of loo 

 sovereigns each, h. ft., over the Old Mile course. In 

 the result Nat Flatman brought Mango in first by a 

 neck. At the very last moment Lord Chesterfield with- 

 drew his horse Hornsea from the Gold Cup, creating 

 thereby some feeling of resentment, the horse being fit 

 to go. The Marquis of Westminster's Touchstone, six 

 years, ridden by Scott, was the winner. Remaining with 

 the others for the first part of the course — Touchstone 

 went like an arrow to the front at the turn, and beating 

 Slane at every stretch won in a canter by six lengths. 

 This was the last race that Touchstone was entered for. 

 He was a very peculiar horse, but was noted for his 

 speed. Neither distance nor the state of the ground 

 affected him. He was bred by the first Marquis of West- 

 minster in 1831, and his record was a brilliant one — 

 viz., starts 21, wins 9, walks over 7, and losses 5. 



The illness that prevented the King from attending 

 the races in 1837, ended fatally on June 20th of that 

 year, and Alexandrina Victoria, the daughter of Edward, 

 Duke of Kent, and niece of the late Kins^, became Oueen 

 of England at the age of eighteen. It was, therefore, a 

 very grand day at Ascot, in 1 838, when the royal pro- 

 cession of seven carriages drove up the New Mile, and 

 the Queen, attended by a large party of outriders and 

 yeomen prickers, was joyfully hailed on her appearance 

 by the crowds of her loyal subjects who had the 

 opportunity of thus expressing their good wishes. Her 

 Majesty was attired in a pink silk slip, over which was 

 a lace dress ; she wore a white gauze poke bonnet, 

 trimmed with pink ribbons and ornamented with roses 



76 



