Royal Ascot 



<♦- 



weighing only 2 or 3 lb. over 2 st. This was the first 

 time he had ridden in a race, although he had bestrode 

 horses in their gallops. 



Several improvements were carried out in the Queen's 

 and Grand Stands in this and the following year : both 

 were redecorated, blinds were fixed to the Queen's Stand, 

 and a shrubbery added to the attractions of the Grand 

 Stand. Another alteration was that part of the running 

 ground which had been objected to by trainers had under- 

 gone the process of tanning. 



A novelty also was introduced in the way of a black 

 board, placed conspicuously behind the Judge's Box, on 

 which, as jockeys weighed, their numbers (corresponding 

 with the numbers on the official race card) were exhibited, 

 and, as soon as the race was over, the numbers of the 

 winning horses were put up, thereby doing away with all the 

 trickery and confusion that had previously been experienced. 



It may be well to mention that in 1843 there was a 

 great deal of unpleasantness felt over an incident that 

 arose through Lord Rosslyn, the Master of the Buck- 

 hounds, officially transferring the printing of the Race 

 Cards, which had hitherto been done by Mr. Richard 

 Oxley, of Windsor, to a Mr. Brown. In the 'forties 

 political feeling ran high, and it was alleged by Mr. Oxley 

 that it was because he was the proprietor of a paper which 

 was employed by a Whig Committee, that Lord Rosslyn, 

 who was a Tory, had given the printing to Mr. Brown, 

 who was in the employ of that party. The question caused 

 much excitement at the time, and columns of letters and 

 leading articles appeared, for and against, in the papers of 

 the day. 



86 



