OL 
something to encourage it, presenting the 
Jockey Club in 1832 with one of the hoofs 
of Eclipse set in gold, which, with £200 
given by himself, was to be run for annually 
by horses the property of members. ‘ The 
Eclipse Foot” appears to have brought fields 
for only four years, and then remained an 
ornament of the Jockey Club rooms at New- 
market. 
In the same year, 1832, a new schedule 
of weights was appended to the Articles for 
the King’s Plates; this shows that the 
weights to be carried varied somewhat 
according to the places where the races were 
run. No scale was prescribed for New- 
market, the conditions being left for settle- 
ment by the Jockey Club. In 1837, the last 
year of William’s reign, the number of Royal 
Plates had again increased and stood at 48, 
34 in England and Scotland, 14 in Ireland. 
The king continued the breeding stud at 
Hampton Court which his brother had be- 
queathed to him; if his affection for the Turf 
was slight, he deserves the greater credit for 
having maintained it. 
The reign of William IV. saw the coach- 
ing age at its best, for rapid travel by road 
was raised to a science only a few years 
before its extinction by the introduction of 
