CHA.PTER VII. 



QUEEN'S PEEMIUM SIRES. 



The royal patronage of the Turf, which 

 extended over a period of some two hundred 

 and eighty years — i.e., from the reign of 

 James I. to that of Queen Victoria — may be 

 said to have terminated officially with the 

 substitution of Queen's Premiums for the 

 Queen's Plates. That our present King 

 continues to run horses (and has, indeed, 

 as Prince of Wales, to the general and his 

 own delight, actually twice won the chief 

 prize of the British Turf) the country 

 accepts as a welcome and very practical 

 proof that its great national sport still 

 enjoys the personal sympathy of the royal 

 house. Nevertheless, many persons, while 

 fully recognising the futility to which the 



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