50 
added that the scale of weights prescribed 
for the Royal Plates was as follows :— 
4-year-olds carried 10 stone 4q lb. 
Byearolds ,»« It ww Ow 
G-andaged « 2 x 
Races decided in 4-mile heats. 
The King himself lent a somewhat per- 
functory support to the Turf, keeping at 
Hampton Court a grey Arab stallion, whose 
services were available for mares at a stated 
fee. 
A most important event in the history of 
the Turf marks George II.’s reign. The 
Jockey Club was founded, and its existence 
first received public recognition in Mr. John 
Pond’s Sporting Kalendar, published at the 
end of 1751 or the beginning of 1752. It 
is probable, however, that the club was 
actually in existence in the year 1750; but 
it was started without any attempt at pub- 
licity, and, so far as can be ascertained, 
with no idea whatever of acquiring the 
despotic power which eventually came into 
its hands. As Mr. Robert Black, in Zhe 
Jockey Club and its Founders, remarks : 
‘‘What more natural than that the noblemen and 
gentlemen who frequented Newmarket, where ruffians 
and blacklegs were wont to congregate, should con- 
ceive the notion of forming themselves into a body 
apart, so that they might have at Newmarket as 
