238 RACING, PAST AND PRESENT, 
performance, including the return journey. To-day, double 
the distance may be done in as many days, thus economizing 
money and time. The late Mr. Scott used to send his horses 
to Leatherhead where they were located for several weeks for 
Epsom races. Probably after travelling so far on foot, this 
halt could scarcely have been well dispensed with. His horses, 
too, were usually sent from Whitewall to Pigburn before 
the Doncaster Meeting. This change probably was dictated 
from the superior nature of the one ground to the other. At 
both Leatherhead and Pigburn they used to take one sweat, as 
well as several gallops, before running their respective races 
at Epsom and Doncaster: now, through the instrumentality 
of the railroad, they are brought within a couple of days 
of one, and the other may easily be reached the same day; 
and yet for aught I see, horses were as well trained in those 
days as now, and the worst horses made as much of. 
Mr. John Lawrence, in his work from which I have already 
had occasion to quote, gives some particulars of racing as it 
was in his time. 
“ The Duke of Queensberry,” he says, “ raced for over half 
a century and with unparalleled success in his matchmaking 
and betting accounts. His carriage match at Newmarket, 
the fame of which spread all over Europe, and his success- 
ful half and quarter mile matches with the Rocket gelding, 
gave him the reputation of an original in the projects of the 
turf. The success of his short races was supposed to 
depend materially on the presence of mind, keenness of 
eye and activity of Hell-fire Dick.” 
This I have heard my father say was the sobriquet of Mr. 
R. Goodson, the celebrated jockey of that day. Mr. Lawrence 
next sets out to describe extremely short races not exceeding a 
quarter of a mile, and then gives an account of one, in 1772, just 
