History of the British Turf : from the Earliest Times to the Present
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HISTORY BRITISH TURF. MK. GEORGE PAYNE. — : History OF The British Turf, FROM THE earliest TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY. JAMES RICE, (Of Lvicolii's Inn, Barrister-at-Law; formerly ofQueeiti College, Cainl'ridge.) "But it ;; not in perils nnd conflicts alone that the horse willingly co-operates with his masi ?r; he likewise participates in human pleasures. He exults in the chase and the tournament; his eyes sparkle with emulation on the course." Buffon. IN TWO VOL UMES. VOL. II. LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, ISS, FLEET STREET. ' 1S79. ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. Vol. II. Page 22, lino 25, for "Mr. Disraeli" read "Lord BeaconsfielJ." Page 33, line 5, PotSo's—the same story was told when the horse was in training. Page 60, last line, for "half" read "quarter." The palace was sold by Mr. Driver, of Whitehall, at the wish of the Queen and Prince Consort, lest their sons should be tempted to take to the Turf. It was sold for only a few pounds over the reserve ; and the land is now worth, probably, doulile what it then realized. Page 71, line 3, "Royal," rather because the course belongs to the Crown. The Master of the Buckhounds acts as owner of the ground. Page 133, line 24, after "Cartouche" insert "and Roxana, dam of." Page 143, line 26, for "Cartouch" read " Cartouche." Page 147, line 20, for "these" read "those." Page 147, line 30, for "Pigot" read "Piggot." ————— — CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTER PAGE I. — i Epsom The Derby—The Oaks . — 23 II. —DONCASTER AND YORK 24— 45 III. Newmarket 46— 66 IV. Ascot and Goodwood 67 — 73 V. Chester—Newcastle—Northampton—Paisley- Lincoln—Durham 74— 87 VI. Racing in the United States and Canada— The Trotting Horse of America . • 88— 124 VII. The English Race-horse: His Origin . 125 — 173 VIII. The English Race-horse : His Training and Treatment — JNIodern Methods — The Old Style 174—210 IX. Modern Newmarket — Notes on Judicious Crosses—Strains of Blood—Soundness 211 —224 X. Old Mr. Scott —John Scott—Whitehall— Baron Martin—Sir Joseph Hawley . 225 —241 XI. Lord Glasgow—Admiral Rous . 242 —266 XII.— Remarks on Betting — The Old Bettors Round—Davis, the " Leviathan " Mr. Dodg- " son's Method — Gain =Loss = Nil" — Odds against Derby Winners — Curious Bets — Dreams ....... 267 — 295 XIII. Mr. George Payne—The De Ros Action— Anecdotes 296—30S The Progress of the Law relating to Horse- XIV. — racing and Wagers The Early Statutes— . Enactments of Charles II., Anne, George II. —Statutes now in force . 309—322 — VUl CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XV. General Peel—Stockwell, West Australian, AND Voltigeur — Baron Rothschild — Mr. Merry—Mr. Blenkiron and Middle Park 323 —344 XVI. Steeplechasing—Duke of Newcastle — Lord St. Vincent—Mr. Clark—"The Druid"—Mr. — Heathcote The Jockey Club . 345- Rules of Racing Winners of the Derby . , , Winners of the St. Leger . Winners of the Oaks .... Winners of the Two Thousand Guineas Winners of the One Thousand Guineas HISTORY OF THE BRITISH TURF. CHAPTER I. EPSOM THE DERBY THE OAKS. ALTHOUGH Epsom as a place of sport must take rank after Chester, Newmarket, and se- veral other towns in point of antiquity, it seems but fair to give to the course on which the Derby is run for, the pride of place, when entering upon a description of our celebrated running grounds. Epsom, variously spelled Eppsam and Epsam, is one of those towns the origin of whose names is lost in obscurity. It is a parish in the county of Surrey, as everybody knows, and was once a market town. Its distance from London is fourteen miles, and it is situate on the turnpike road from London to Dork- ing, Worthing, Guildford, and Portsmouth. Possibly the name of Epsom is derived from Ebba's-home, the home of Ebba, a sometime queen of the county of Surrey—who flourished about 600; and in Queen Anne's reign a gentleman of antiquarian pursuits, resident in the neighbourhood, went so far as to fix upon a farmhouse in the vicinage as the identical VOL. H. I HISTORY OF THE BRITISH TURF. home of Ebba. That such a queen Hved, and was a personage of the most eminent sanctity, so that churches were dedicated to her, under the style of Saint Ebba, we have abundant proof; but that the farmhouse selected as having been her residence by Mr. Toland, of Woodcote, was so in fact, or that she ever lived at Epsom at all, we have no evi- dence. During the period up to and including the sixteenth century, Epsom seems to have been a quiet country village, not distinguished from scores of other Surrey villages by anything of interest. But early in the seventeenth century an event occurred which contri- buted enormously to the fame and prosperity of the village, and likewise made its name one of ill-savour with English youth from John o' Groat's to Land's End. In 1618, the mineral spring impregnated with the extremely disagreeable saline matter, so well known as Epsom salts, was discovered—by accident, it is said, like many other great discoveries of ancient and modern times. One Henry Wicker, a herdsman, having his eyes about him, observed during a summer of unusual drought water in a small hole on the common, between Ashstead and Epsom; whereupon Wicker, who was at his wits- ends to get water for his cows, proceeded to his farmyard and returned with a spade. He then set vigorously to work, overjoyed at having found water in the midst of what had been before an arid plain, and widened the area of his spring until it was a — EPSOM—THE DERBY—THE OAKS. drinking-place of decent size for cattle. It is an old remark that it is one thingr to take a horse to the water, and another to make him drink. It was so with Henry Wicker's cows. They very naturally refused to drink a strong solution of Epsom salts, even in the hot summer of 1618. Wicker, con- founded, drove them home. The water he had found, his cattle refused to drink, and on tasting- it himself he perceived it had a queer taste. Inquir}'- was made into the properties of Mr. Henry Wicker's newly found spring, that neither he nor his cattle relished. The wise people of the place, the phy- sician and the apothecary, put the water to its wrong use, of course; though they found out a subordinate way of making it useful. They prescribed it as a "vulnerary and abstersive," and for some dozen years or so it was used in the neighbourhood for the cure of simple wounds, which, an old writer says, are "soundly and suddenly cured by the application of this water." Epsom, however, was fated to be famous, and accident came to help on the fortunes of the little village a second time. In 1632 some labourers drank a tolerably full draught apiece from Wicker's Well, and within thirty minutes the true properties of the water were known. Local fame was followed by a wider reputation. People began to come from the metropolis to drink their cups of water from the medicinal spring on Banstead Downs. Twenty years after— namely, 1654—this was the case. In I 2 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH TURF. 1674 the practice of repairing to Epsom and staying there for a few days or weeks to drink the waters was sufficiently common to provoke a satirical tract, entitled " Flos Ingenll, &c., being an exact de- scription of Epsam and Epsam Wells," In this ex- tremely broad and now rare satire, Epsom is de- scribed as a " sorry town," but the resort of people of fashion, who go there from London to drink the waters and take the air. A new town sprang up like magic ; avenues of trees were planted, to shade future generations of gallants and ladles as they walked in their pilgrimage to Wicker's Well; lodging-houses for the reception of the line company from the Court and city were numerous; a ball-room and other amusements were provided; and in 1667, in the month of July, Pepys was there, and went to the well, where " he did drink four 'pints" of the water. There Avas, he says, " much company " there, but they "did not" drink with him. In the town he found Nell Gwynne and Lord Buckhurst, and Sir Charles Sedley with them, " keeping a merry house." Epsom, therefore, a couple of centuries ago was one of the most fashionable resorts and mer- riest places to be found in the merry England of Charles II. There are many claimants to the distinction of having first made known the virtues of the waters containing 480 grains of calcareous nitre to the gallon, " 280 more than the Dog and Duck, In St. George's Fields." Among these, Dudley, third Lord North, EPSOM—THE DERBY— THE OAKS. 5 appears. Whether through his agency or that of other persons, the anxiety of persons of fashion to drink the waters increased very rapidly ; and those unfortunates whom business or bodily weakness pre- vented from a personal attendance at the springs on the Downs must needs buy salts, prepared from the waters, at five shillings an ounce—the demand at this price being so great that the supply was un- equal to it, and those " other sophisticated salts," of the same name, with which English boys have since become so familiar, were sold in their place. So much for one of the two things to which Epsom owes its celebrity.