234 RACING, PAST AND PRESENT. 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
RACING, PAST AND PRESENT. 
Rarity of races in old days; extracts from records—Racing in 1750—Value of 
stakes in present day ; table—Ancient estimation of the horse; King Athel- 
stan’s running horses—The earliest race on record—Racing ds it was; dis- 
tances travelled and hardships; the Duke of Queensberry and ‘‘ Hellfire 
Dick ;” a six-mile race ; heats ; cruel feats of endurance—Racing as it is : 
horses run oftener now; /isherman’s performances, and others; Jsoline, 
Crucifix, Galopin—Racing for pleasure, and modern increase of betting— 
Cosmopolitan state of the turf—Evils of usury—Career of the Marquess of 
Hastings; its assumed disastrous result refuted—Career of the late Earl of 
Derby—The two contrasted, and satisfactory deductions therefrom—Betting 
a chief cause of loss, greatly increased by usury—Example of the latter ; 
42,000 for a box of cigars. 
IF we come to compare racing as it is and as it used to 
be, we shall find how vastly it has improved as a science 
and increased as a national pastime. 
In 1750, or thirty years before the first Derby was run, we 
find the races so numerically small that in order to make a 
volume, recording the races, of a respectable size, it was found 
necessary to add Cocking and a list of battles fought. 
The first account of a race given in this curious and interest- 
ing little volume I give verbatim. “Upon the 15th day of 
March (1749) the annual Sixteen Guineas Prize was run for 
