It A C 



cuftom, than from the mttliod of tying a bell round the 

 neck of the (hcop, which k-uds the- flock, and is, therefore, 

 counted the bell. 



About the latter end of the reign of Charles I. it was 

 cultomary to have races performed in Hyde Park. See the 

 Comedy of the Merry Beggars, or Jovial Crew, written in 

 1641, in Dodfley's Colledion of Old Plays. 



Racing was much encouraged by Charles II. after his 

 reftoration : he gave public rewards and prizes, and ap- 

 pointed races for his own amufemcnt at Datchet Mead, 

 when he refided at Windfor. But the molt dillinguifhed 

 fpot for thcle exercifes was Newmarket, which was at firll 

 frequented for the purpofe of hunting, and feems not to 

 have been deftined to be a horl'e-conrfe till fome time be- 

 fore the troubles of the reign of Charles I., when races 

 were difcontinued ; but they were revived foon after the 

 Relloration. The king attended in perfon, and eftablifhed 

 a houfe for his accommodation, and kept and entered horles 

 in his own name. Inllead of bells, a iilver bowl or cup, of 

 the value of a hundred guineas, was allotted for a prize ; 

 and upon this royal gift the exploits of the fuccefsful horfe, 

 and his pedigree, were generally engraved. The fum of 

 a hundred guineas is now given in lieu of the filver bowl. 



When William III. was advanced to the throne, he not 

 only added to the plates given to different places in the 

 kingdom, but founded an academy for riding. Queen Anne 

 continued the bounty of her predecelTors, with the addition 

 of federal plates. George I., towards the end of his reign, 

 difcontinued the plates, and gave the fum of a hundred 

 guineas in their room. 



In the thirteenth year of George II. an aft was palled 

 for the fuppreffion of races by poneys, and other fmall and 

 weak horfes, by which all matches for any prize under the 

 value of 50/. are prohibited, under a penalty of 2Co/., to be 

 paid by the owner of each horfe running, and 100/. by fuch 

 as advertife the plate ; and by wliich each horfe entered to 

 run, if five years old, is obliged to can-y ten ftone ; if fix, 

 eleven ; and if feven, twelve. It is alfo ordained, that no 

 perfon fhall run any horfe at a courfe, unlefs it be his own, 

 nor enter more than one horfe for the fame plate, upon 

 pain of forfeiting the horfes : and alfo every horfe-race muft 

 be begun and ended in the fame day. Horfes may run for the 

 value of 50/. with any weight, and at asy place. 1 3 Geo. II. 

 cap. 19. 18 Geo. II. cap. 34. Pennant's Brit. Zool. 

 vol. i. p. 6, &c. Berenger's Hift. and Art of Horfeman- 

 ihip, vol. i. p. 185, &c. 



We thall here add, that at Newmarket there are two 

 courfes, the long and the round : the firft is exactly four 

 miles, and about three hundred and eighty yards, i. e. 

 feven thoufand four hundred and twenty yards. The 

 fecond is fix thoufand fix hundred and forty yards. Chil- 

 ders, the fwifteft horfe ever known, has run the firit courfe 

 in feven minutes and a half, and the fecond in fix minutes 

 forty feconds ; which is at the rate of more than forty-nine 

 feet in a fecond. But all other horfes take up at leaft 

 feven minutes and fifty feconds in completing the firll and 

 longeft courfe, and feven minutes only in the ihorteit, 

 which is at the rate of more than forty-feven feet in a 

 fecond, and it is commonly fuppofed that thefe courfers 

 cover,- at every bound, a fpace of ground in length about 

 twenty-four Enghfh feet. 



RACITZA, in Geography, a town of Bukovina ; 7 

 miles N. of Czernaucii. 



RACK, a fmall idand near the coaft of Virginia. N. 

 lat. 37° 19'. W. long, "jf 51'. 



Rack, Lotuer and Upper, two fmall iflands near the coaft 



R A C 



of Virginia ; the former in N. lat. 37° 20'. W. long. 75'' 

 Jo', and the latter in N. lat. 37'' 26'. W. long. 75" 45'. 



Rack, an engine of torture furnifhed with cords, &c. 

 fjr extorting confeflion from criminals. 



The duke of Exeter, conftable of the Tower under 

 Henry VI., with the duke of Suffolk, and others, having 

 a defign to introduce the civil law into England ; for a 

 beginning, the rack, or brake, allowed in many cafes by the 

 civil law, was firft brought to the Tower, where it is ftill 

 preferved ; in thofe days the rack was called the duke of 

 Exeter's daughter. 3 Inft. 35. 



It wasoccafionally ufed as an engine of ilate, not of law, 

 more than once in tlie reign of queen Elizabeth. (Barr. 92. 

 496.) But when, upon the aftallination of Villiers, duke of 

 Buckingham, by Felton, it was propoied in the privy- 

 council to put the aflaflin to the rack, in order to difcover 

 his accomphces ; the judges being confulted, declared unani- 

 moufiy, to their own honour, and the honour of the Englifh 

 law, that no fuch proceeding was allowable by the laws of 

 England. Tiie uncertainty of this punilhment, as a telt 

 and criterion of truth, was long ago very elegantly pointed 

 out by Tully {pro Sulla, 28.) ; though he lived in a (late 

 in which it was ufual to torture (laves, in order to furnifh 

 evidence. " Tamen," fays he, " ilia tormenta gubernat 

 dolor, moderatur natura cujufque turn animi turn corporis, 

 regit qutefitor, fiectit libido, corrumpit Ipes, infirmat metus ; 

 ut in tot rerum anguftiis nihil veritati loci relinquatur." 



The marquis Beccaria (ch. 16.), in an exquifite piece of 

 raillery, has propofed this problem, with a gravity and 

 precifibn that are truly mathematical : " the force of the 

 mufcles, and the fenfibility of the nerves of an innocent 

 perfon being given, it is required to find the degree of pain 

 neccflary to make him confefs himfelf guilty of a given 

 crime." 



Rack, in the Manege, a pace in which a horfe neither 

 trots nor ambles, but (hufBes, as it were, between both. 



The racking pace is much the fame as the amlle (which 

 fee) ; only that it is a fwifter time, and a ihorter tread. 



Rack is alfo a wooden frame, made to hold hay or fodder 

 for cattle. There has lately been much improvement made 

 in the forming of all forts of racks, both for the ftable, 

 cattle-lheds, and field. See CATTLE^jeds, Stable, -and 

 SllEEP-houfe. 



Rack, in Rigging, a ihort thin plank, with holes made 

 through it, containing a number of belaying-pins, ufed in- 

 (lead of cleats ; it is leized to the {hrouds, and nailed over 

 the bowfprit or windlafs. — Alfo, a long (hell, containing a 

 number of fheaves, formerly fixed over the bowfprit to lead 

 in the running rigging. At prefent, wooden faddles, with 

 holes in them, are nailed on the bowfprit for this purpofe. 

 being more out of the way, and lefs liable to be out of order, 

 See SllOT-raek, and SllROVD-raei. 



To Rack Wines, &c. is to draw them from off their lees, 

 after their having ftood long enough to clear and fettle. 

 Hence, 



^ ACK-Vintage, is frequently ufed for the fecond voyage 

 our wine-merchants ufed to make into France for racked 

 wines; whence they ufed to return about the end of De- 

 cember. 



KACK-ffolelers, fuch tenants as hold their lands under 

 fuch leafes. 



KACK-Lea/es, are fuch forts of leafes as are granted for 

 one or more lives, at the full rack rents, as in Cornwall, 

 and fome other counties. See Leases of Land. 



RACK-Renl, is the full yearly value of land let by leafe, 

 payable by tenant for life or years, &c. See Rent. 



Rack- 



