A HISTORY OF KENT 



at Margate in 1820; the united Chatham 

 and Rochester meetings began in 1822 ; 

 Faversham followed suit the next year ; and 

 Tunbridge Wells inaugurated a fixture in 

 1824. At Ashford, racing was established 

 two years later, and Dover came next, in 

 1827. Wye followed several years later, the 

 first recorded meeting taking place there 

 in 1849. 



Of these early meetings of the last century 

 the chief interest attaches to those held at 

 Ashford, which flourished as a racing 

 centre until 1841. The Ashford meetings 

 were among the most popular of all race 

 gatherings in the county, and in the entire 

 history of early heat-racing in Kent it would 

 be difficult to find a more notable occasion 

 than the inaugural Town Plate of 1826. 

 The distance of this event was a mile and 

 a half shorter than the famous recorded four 

 mile Give and Take Plate decided at York 

 in the year 1784, which so pleased one Mr. 

 Perram that he took the unusual course of 

 bequeathing the sum of ^^30 to the owner 

 of the Avinning horse. 



The heats of the Ashford Town Plate, 

 like that of York, numbered five, including 

 one in which there was no decision, the 

 judge being unable to separate the horses. 

 The record of the race, which is remarkable 

 enough in its way to be worthy of detailed 

 mention here, was as follows : — 



Ashford 1826 

 Monday, September 7. The Town Pl.ite of 



50 sovs ; weight for age, winners extra ; heats 



two miles and a half. 



Mr. Tyr Jones ch f Partial by Sooth- 

 sayer, 4 yrs. . . . -2 I o I 



Mr. Scaith's gr c Jack Bounce, 4 yrs. 21202 



Mr. Wickham's Mary Anne, late 



Ynysymaengwyn, aged . . - 3 3 — 



Mr. Brown's b m Maid of Kent, 6 yrs. 



(wrong side of the post) . i -dis - - 



Mr. Howard's ch m Sophia, 5 yrs. — dr — 



Mr. Heathcote's wh c Syntax 3 yrs. 3 dr 



Chatham's racing career has been of a very 

 chequered character, its meetings having 

 been held intermittently from 1822 to i860. 

 There is little of interest concerning them ; 

 but we learn that the Chatham course was 

 ' one mile and one furlong with a straight 

 run-in of a quarter of a mile with 24 rods all 

 flat and in one field.' It is further recorded 

 that ' the horses were seen from the judge's 

 chair all the way round.' 



Dover Races claim more attention. The 

 races were originally held near the town be- 

 yond the castle, and there they might have 

 been continued for many years had not some 



trouble with the municipality arisen, which 

 eventually led to their removal. A new 

 site was thereupon offered by the seventh 

 Earl of Guilford in his park at Waldershare, 

 and here the races were carried on wth 

 some success until 1880. But although the 

 new course at Waldershare was in every way 

 vastly superior to the original venue, the 

 removal of Dover Races so far from the 

 town naturally had a prejudicial effect upon 

 their popularity. When the races were held 

 on the heights the occasion was considered 

 a great social function and all the county 

 magnates attended. Prominent visitors in 

 the old days were Lord Palmerston, and the 

 second Earl Granville, ^\hen in residence 

 at Walmer near by. 



It cannot perhaps be said that the horses 

 that made their appearance at such fixtures as 

 Dover were of remarkable excellence ; but 

 Cecil, winner of the Cesarewitch in 1868, 

 figured at one of these meetings a month or 

 so before he won the big race. Lord Guil- 

 ford spared no expense in making the new 

 course at Waldershare suitable in all ways 

 for the purposes of racing, and spent a 

 considerable sum of money in railing in 

 half a mile straight of the three-quarters 

 run-in of a track which extended for quite 

 two miles round. Many an Epsom and 

 Berkshire trainer has sighed at the sight of 

 this excellent track and longed to transport it 

 to his training grounds for use as a summer 

 gallop. The turf was old and in good con- 

 dition in all weathers, and a separate track, 

 also laid out by his lordship and equally good 

 in its way, was used for steeplechasing. Lord 

 Guilford also erected a grand stand at his 

 own expense and may be said practically to 

 have run the meeting after its removal to his 

 domains. 



Things flourished for many a day at Walder- 

 share until the passing of a new Jockey Club 

 rule which raised the added money of a race 

 meeting to £300 per day, of which ill 50 at least 

 had to be given to a race of a mile or up- 

 wards. This new law was destined to play 

 havoc with the success of other Kentish meet- 

 ings besides Dover. Not only did it upset the 

 smaller fixtures throughout the county, but 

 it also in the course of time interfered greatly 

 with meetings of far greater importance. 

 Margate, Maidstone, Shorncliffe, Folkestone, 

 Tonbridge, Wye, Rochester, and Bromley, 

 as well as the original Canterbury meeting, 

 the forerunner of them all, shared the 

 fate of Dover one after another. A little 

 meeting started in 1852 at Lenham, between 

 Maidstone and Ashford, held out until i860, 

 during which period it was well supported 



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