Royal Ascot 



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cudgels, and prohibited Oxley's cards from being sold at 

 their station at Slough. Nevertheless, the opposition failed. 

 Mr. Brown, indeed, had not been equal to the task, and 

 another printer had supplied the " official " programme ; 

 still the public wanted Oxley's, and would buy only Oxley's. 

 In recollections and reminiscences of Ascot there are 

 some meetings which stand out in special prominence, and 

 that of 1844 is one of them. That stern despot and haughty 

 autocrat, Nicholas I., Czar of all the Russias, was on a visit 

 to this country, and came with the Royal party to Ascot. 

 The Royal procession on this occasion was especially bril- 

 liant, and included Her Majesty, the Emperor of Russia, 

 the King of Saxony, Prince Albert, etc. The racing was 

 good, and the meeting passed off in grand weather. The 

 Czar was a keen sportsman, and was delighted with our 

 Royal Race Meeting. The race for the Gold Cup was, of 

 couse, the chief item in the programme, and led to a fine 

 match between Lord Albemarle's ch. c. by Defence (White- 

 house), and Mr. Townley's Coranna (Robinson). There 

 was much enthusiasm, and the race throughout was keenly 

 contested ; in the end Lord Albemarle's colt passed the 

 post half a length ahead of Coranna. Immediately after 

 the race his lordship christened the colt Emperor, out of 

 compliment to the august visitor, and so flattered was the 

 Czar, and so pleased with the racing, that he asked to be 

 allowed to present each year a piece of plate value ^500, 

 to be called the Emperor's Plate, and to take the place of 

 the old Gold Cup. Little did people think then, that within 

 ten years, England would be at war with Russia, and that 

 the battlefields of Balaclava, Sebastopol, Alma, and Inkerman 

 would be dyed with British blood. 



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