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upon by unprincipled persons, who would 
demand horses from them without tender- 
ing payment, on the false plea that they 
were royal messengers journeying in haste 
on business of the State. Not infrequently, 
too, the hirer or borrower was none other 
than a horse-thief, who rode the animal 
into some remote country town, and sold 
him to whoever would buy. Richard II.’s 
Act of 1396, aimed at suppression of these 
practices, laying penalties upon anyone found 
guilty of them; and it further called upon 
the hackneymen to help themselves by 
placing a distinctive mark on their horses. 
Any animal bearing such a mark might be 
seized by the hackneyman if he found it 
in possession of another, and no compensa- 
tion could be claimed by the person from 
whose custody it was taken. 
The earliest account of a race that we 
can trace (apart from the sports at Smith- 
field) refers to the year 1377, the first of 
Richard’s reign. In that year the King 
and the Earl of Arundel rode a race* (par- 
ticulars of conditions, distance, weights, &c., 
are wanting!), which it would seem was 
won by the Earl, since the King purchased 
* « The History of Newmarket.” By T. P. Hore. 
(3 vols.) H. Baily & Co. London, 1886. 
