THE HOKSE. 
15 
THE RACE-HORSE. 
Charles Bunbury, are noted amongst the sportsmen of this period. The latter gentleman survived until the year 1821, at 
the age of eighty-two, keeping up his connexion with the turf till the last. He was mainly instrumental in doing away with the 
four-mile races at Newmarket, and in producing the unhappy innovation of running two-year-old colts. 
The name of the Duke of Queensberry is associated with all the proceedings of this period. He was successful, shrewd, 
and skilful in resources. Old Q., as he was afterwards called, was never to be taken in . His famous carriage match, about the 
middle of the century, is well known. The match was for 1000 guineas. A carriage was to be constructed with four wheels to 
carry one person, and to run nineteen miles within the hour. On the day of trial, a carriage, of the weight of an alderman, 
appeared on the heath of Newmarket, with spokes of whalebone, traces of silk, and so forth, drawn by four thorough-bred horses, 
ridden by boys, dressed, we are told, in blue satin waistcoats, buckskin breeches, and white silk stockings, followed by a postilion 
in red silk stockings, and preceded by a groom in crimson velvet to clear the way. The traces were made with springs to roll up 
on the relaxing of the draught, so that they might not get beneath the horses; and cases of tin kept dropping oil on the axletree, 
to prevent its taking fire. A space for the course was corded in round the heath, and the fairy equipage was in motion with the 
speed of the wind. The horses ran away with their riders, and did the first nine miles in four minutes, and the match was com¬ 
pleted in fifty-three minutes twenty-seven seconds. Other stories are on record regarding the eccentric Duke. On one occasion of 
a match, a large sum of money was offered to his jockey if he would lose the race. The jockey honestly told the Duke, who 
coolly desired him to take the money. When the horse came to the starting post, the Duke too was there. He said he had a 
mind to ride the horse himself, so, throwing off his greatcoat, he was seen to be equipped in racing attire, and mounting, he won 
the race with ease. In 1756' he had a successful match with the Duke of Hamilton, when both noblemen rode their own horses, 
and when enormous sums depended on the result. His horse, Dash, beat Sir Peter Teazle over the six-mile course of Newmarket, 
and he gained two others, thousand-guinea matches, three times round the Bound Course, or a distance of about twelve miles. 
He kept a select, but not a numerous stud. He died in 1810, at the age of eighty-six. 
In 1784, we find the gay and accomplished Prince of Wales, then twenty-two years of age, an eager supporter of this class 
of amusements. In 1791, an event occurred which caused the Royal Prince to quit the turf in disgust. The story has been often 
told, but as it has not always been fairly told, it is but just to repeat it. On the 20th October, the Prince’s best horse, 
Escape, ridden by Samuel Chifney the elder, was beaten at Newmarket by Coriander and Skylark, Escape being the favourite 
horse in the betting. On the following day, the betting being 5 to 1 against Escape, this horse, ridden by Chifney, beat 
Skylark and the other horses easily. At this result, a violent outcry was raised by the losers, who did not hesitate to say that, 
on the 20th, Chifney rode to lose, and that the Prince himself was implicated. The character and station of the youthful 
Prince might have saved him from this cruel suspicion. He declared that he had no bets on the first day’s race, and but incon¬ 
siderable ones on the second. He caused Chifney to be rigidly examined, when the latter made affidavit that he had done every 
thing which his judgment suggested to him to make his horse win on the first day; and thirteen years later, in his Genius Genuine, 
he gave a narrative of the proceeding, accounting for the defeat of Escape on the first day by his being short of work, and for his 
winning on the second by the effects of the gallop in putting him in trim. Notwithstanding the explanations given, the Jockey 
Club, through Sir Charles Bunbury, informed the Prince, that if he suffered Chifney to ride his horses again, no gentleman 
would ride against him. The proceeding seems contrary to the rules of evidence and the principles of fair dealing. The Prince 
declared his own innocence, and no fact which has ever been communicated to the world proved his guilt, or even rendered the 
surmise of it probable. If he believed his jockey innocent, he could not dismiss him without injustice and dishonour; and the 
demand that he should do so was in itself an insult and a wrong. The Prince felt it to be both, and for many years retired from 
all connexion with the turf. About the year 1800, however, his Royal Higness began to restore his stud, in which he took great 
delight, and resumed his accustomed amusement. He sent his horses to Brighton, Lewis, Ascot, Goodwood, and other meetings, 
even after he had ascended the throne, and by degrees restored the Royal stud to great magnificence; and to his latest hour, his 
Majesty took much interest in the amusements of the course. The stud at Hampton Court passed into the hands of His late 
Majesty King William, who judiciously abandoned training for the turf, but acted on the principle of encouraging the breed of 
horses, by instituting annual sales of the young horses which were bred at the establishment. Soon after the accession of Her 
present Majesty, the stud at Hampton Court was wholly broken up. It is to be regretted that the horses, amongst which were 
some Arabians, presented by the Imaun of Muscat, believed to be of the purest of the Desert Breed, should have been dis¬ 
persed and carried to other countries. But otherwise the measure, which excited so much angry discussion at the time, appears 
to have been discreet and wise. Fitting encouragement can be given by means of the Royal plates and otherwise to the rearing 
of horses for the turf, without connecting with its concerns the personal acts of the Sovereign. 
Of the other great supporters of the turf, from the period of the American war down to our own times, were Earl Fitz- 
