JOHNA.SEAVERNS

3 9090 014 539 403

Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine

Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at

Tufts University

200 Westboro Road

North Grafton. MA 01536

THE

HISTORY OF NEWMARKET,

THE ANNALS OF THE TURF.

THE

History of Newmarket,

AND

THE ANNALS OF THE TURF

WITH MEMOIRS AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES

OF THE HABITUES OF NEWMARKET, AND THE NOTABLE

TURFITES FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE

END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

BY

J. P. HORE.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH

OF JAMES I.

LONDON :

A. H. BAILY AND CO., 15, NICHOLAS LANE, CANNON STREET, E.C. 1886.

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PREFACE.

Rich, as many of our counties are, in topographical and historical literature, Cambridgeshire has been so neglected in this respect that she may be termed the Cinderella of the Shires. Need we wonder, then, when this important county — whose metropolis is the seat of one of our most renowned and ancient Univer- sities— has hitherto found no scribe to worthily chronicle her rural records, that an obscure hamlet within her confines should be unnoticed by writers upon ancient topographical subjects ? Nevertheless, this erst obscure hamlet (to use a racing phrase) is, on " book form," four times as wicked as the infamous towns mentioned in Genesis (which were only once destroyed by fire), because after Newmarket became the Metropolis of the Turf, on three several times, it was almost reduced to ashes, and once nearly destroyed by water, by way of a change. Surely a place enjoying such a reputation to start with, does not deserve to languish any longer in obscurity ; and being actuated with a desire to lift the veil which so long hid her blushes,

viti PREFACE.

mainly accounts for the compilation of these volumes. Whether the subject is worth the pains its production incurred remains to be seen. It is a (very) plain un- varnished tale, told by a sportsman, for sportsmen, who has endeavoured throughout the work to faithfully depict scenes of bygone days in Newmarket by re- producing as closely as possible the characteristics and incidents of those times as they were then portrayed.

The same course, but in a more marked degree, has been observed in compiling the Annals of the Turf " Veracity is their only ornament " — to quote the words of a celebrated writer ; " but it is an orna- ment beyond all others in historical anecdotes." The Annals are often crude, and sometimes may be found unpalatable — replete with bad spelling, shocking grammar, and wretched diction. If we want elegant orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody, and all the flowers of rhetoric, these will be found abounding in the " Histories of the British Turf from the Earliest Times to the Present Day," by James Christie Whyte (2 vols., London, 1840), and by James Rice (2 vols., London, 1879) ; but, unfortunately, the rhetoric seems to have crowded out the historical information given in our Annals from the earliest times to the end of the sixteenth century ; the seventeenth century is but little better off; the eighteenth century is no more than a poor and imperfect summary of the Racing Calendars ; and from the beginning of the nineteenth century to

PREFACE. " ix

the present day, the works of those brilhant writers abound in " historical " inaccuracies of the most flafrrant description.

The memoirs and biographical notices of the habitiu^s of Newmarket, and of the notable Turfites who flourished long long ago, will probably be inte- resting to the sportsman of our own times. " Memoirs are the materials, and often the touchstone, of history ; " — to quote our favourite author again — who very truly adds, " And even where they descend to incidents beneath her notice, they aid the studies of the antiquary and moral philosopher."

In conclusion, I must, in gratitude, tender my thanks to the Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Pembroke, Edmund Tattersall, Esq., and M. Leopold de Roths- child, for contributing the cost of the illustrations.

J. P. HORE.

Newmarket, May, 1885.

CONTENTS.

BOOK I.

Newmarket and the Turf in the Early and Middle

Ages ... ... ... ... ... i

BOOK II.

From the Accession of Henry VIII. to the Death of

Elizabeth ... ... ■ ... ... ... ... ... 58

BOOK III.

Royal Sojourns at Newmarket. James I. 1605-16 14 ... 129

BOOK IV.

Royal Sojourns at Newmarket. James I. 1615-1625

{Continued) ... ... ... ... ... ... 169

BOOK V.

Miscellaneous Occurrences at Newmarket. 1609-1625 275

BOOK VI.

The Annals of the Turf in the Reign of James I.

1605-1625 ... ... ... ... ... ... 326

THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET,

AND

THE ANNALS OF THE TURF.

BOOK I.

NEWMARKET AND THE TURF IN THE EARLY AND MIDDLE AGES.

Ancient British settlements in the vicinity of Newmarket — The TumuH — Cinerary and other Celtic remains found therein — The Iceni race — Brief account of them by the Roman historians — Enter into an alliance with the Romans — Revolt under Ostorius — The league between Prasutagus and the Emperor — Tyranny of the Romans — Revolt of the Iceni under Queen Boadicea — Obtain a temporary victory — Their subsequent defeat by the Romans — Treatment of the Iceni after the conquest — The Roman-British coins — Those stamped with the figure of a horse — Peculiar to the Iceni race — Probable celebrity of their horses — Taxed by the Romans — Exportation of British horses to Rome — The DeviFs Ditch — Brief survey and description of the structure — Probabilities as to its origin and objects — Newmarket and its vicinity during the Anglo-Saxon era — Royal residents at Exning — The East-Anglican sovereigns — Sf. Etheldreda — The origin of horse-racing in England — Introduced by the Romans — The primitive racehorse — Its Eastern descent — The Spanish Legion — Their racehorses — Training difficulties during the Roman occupation of England — How overcome — Dissemination of Eastern blood — Prominent race-meetings in England under the Romans — The Turf during the Anglo-Saxon era — Probability of horse-races at Newmarket at this period — Progress of the Turf in England in the reigns of Henry II., Richard I., and John — The thoroughbred horses of the Middle Ages — Importation of Eastern blood — Examples — The first authentic description of a horse-race in the Middle Ages —Match between the Prince of Wales (Richard II.) and the Earl of Arundel — Owners up — The Earl's horse wins — Is bought by Richard II. for ^4000 — The Earl of Arundel — The Fathers of the VOL. I. B

2 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

Turf in the Dark Ages — Richard II. — Superiority of English horses in the Middle Ages — Celebrated in song and elegy — Their fame at home and abroad — English Turfites on the Continent — Racing at Milan, Florence, Pisa — Disastrous effect of the Civil Wars on the Turf in England in the fifteenth century — The sport abandoned — Dispersion of racing studs — Foreign buyers — Purchases by the Dukes of Ferrara and Mantua^Presents of English horses to the Duke of Ferrara from the Royal Stud at Eltham — The Middle Park in the Middle Ages — Legislation relating to horse breeding, etc. — New- market in the Middle Ages — Famous for displays of equestrian skill — Examples — The Earl of Pembroke — The Earl of Gloucester and Hertford — The Earl of Surrey — Newmarket and the vicinity in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries — The town nearly destroyed by a deluge in 1393 — Royal visit in 1453 — Manorial history of New- market— First mention of the town in 1227 — The Plague at Exning — Alleged removal of the market at Exning to Newmarket — Grant of Henry III. to Richard de Argentine to have an annual fair at New- market— The Lords of the Manor — The Argentines — -The Alingtons — The Butlers — Local events — Bishop Merkes.

Although the earliest mention of Newmarket* in the counties of Cambridge and Suffolk does not occur until the year a.d. 1227, there is evidence that the vicinity of the Town and Heath was inhabited by the ancient Britons in almost pre-historic times.

Two British tumuli on the borders of Newmarket Heath were opened in May, 1845, and in the following year an account of the examination of them appeared in the " Archseological Journal" (vol. iii., p. 255), The first one described is in the parish of Bottisham. It is placed on an elevated range of hills, forming an escarp- ment of the chalk, which makes it conspicuous for miles over the flat country around. This position, and the fact that an immense quantity of charcoal was found throughout the composition of this tumulus,

* Newmarket in Yorkshire occurs in mediaeval documents, but its precise position is unknown. There is a town of the same name in Flintshire, North Wales ; two in Ireland, in Co. Cork and Co. Clare and another in the United States of America.

Book I.] THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 3

which is of large size, measuring about ninety feet in diameter, although the deposit was, in comparison, very trifling, induces the supposition that it had been used as a site for a beacon-fire, to guide the traveller over the wild waste of fen-country which spreads in all directions around, and hence, possibly, the name of the " Beacon course." The excavation of this tumulus in 1845 was made from east to west, commencing from the eastern side, in the direction of its centre, in which, at a depth of about three feet, there was found a cinerary urn in an inverted position, slightly tilted on one side, and surrounded by charcoal and burnt earth. It was filled with charcoal, but contained only one small fragment of bone. This vessel, which was of the simplest manufacture, moulded by the hand, and sun-baked, measured in height five inches, and its diameter at the largest part was five inches and a half. From the deep red colouring, and the general appear- ance of the surrounding soil, it would seem that a small hole had been first dug, charcoal and bones burnt in it, the vase placed on the fire in an inverted position, and the whole covered up. About ten feet eastward of the central deposit, on the south side of the line of excavation, and half a foot deeper, a deposit of fragments of bone was found apparently calcined, but with little charcoal or burnt earth, forming a layer not more than three inches thick, and two feet in cir- cumference. There were several pieces of the skull, a portion of the alveolar process, inclosing a tooth, apparently that of a young person, pieces of the femur and clavicle, and other fragments. A little to the

4 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

north of this spot there appeared a mass of charcoal and burnt earth, containing nothing of interest. After digging five or six feet deeper, operations were dis- continued ; and on the next day shafts were excavated from the centre, so as completely to examine every part, without any further discovery, and in every direction charcoal was found mingled with the heap, not in patches, but in fragments.

The other barrow was raised in a less conspicuous situation, about three hundred yards down the south slope of Allington Hill, part of the same range situate about a quarter of a mile to the south-west. Both are marked in the Ordnance map. An entrance was obtained from the east-north-east, passing south-south- west through the centre of the mound. Here a thin layer of charcoal appeared extending many feet in every direction. Amongst the soil thrown out, portions of two vases, broken, probably, at a previous opening, were found, " sufficing to prove that this had been an early Celtic, and not Roman deposit." One was the lip of a vase of red ware, the other a portion of a jar of the usual coarse, unbaked pottery, of black colour. In this tumulus were found two small rounded pieces of hard chalk, of the lower strata, called clunch. One was a perfect ball, smooth, measuring an inch in diameter ; the other was of the same size, ground down in a regular manner, reducing it to a turbinated shape. It had been probably intended to perforate these as beads ; a specimen of the same material, ground down in a similar manner and perforated, is in the possession of Mr. Collings.

Book I.] THE ICENI RACE. 5

It is very uncertain for what purpose the objects designated by Mr. ColHngs as beads were fabricated. They are frequently found in tumuli or earthworks, and remains of early occupation. They are mostly formed of indurated clay, bone, or stone, sometimes almost spherical, whilst other specimens are of flattened form, perforated in all cases, in the direction of the smaller diameter. They vary from about one to two inches in diameter. The conjecture appears probable that they may have been used in connection with the distaff, and the occurrence of such an object in a tumulus might thus serve to indicate the interment of a female. Some northern antiquarians, however, have regarded such perforated balls, or beads, as weights used in fishing, either for line or nets.*

The tribe of the Iceni, whose headquarters were at Exning, on Newmarket Heath, is mentioned by different ancient writers, though under a variety of names. That of " Iceni " is the form under which it appears in most copies of Tacitus, and that which is generally adopted. By Ptolemy they are called the Simeni (Stjuevoi, or, as some copies give it 'I//,€i/ot), and their chief town is said to be Venta (Ovez^ra). The ninth Iter of Antoninus is from Venta Icenorum (or Iciorum) to Londinium, and the geographer of Ravenna makes mention of the same town, but under the form Venta Cenomum. We learn from Tacitus

* An urn somewhat similar to that described above was found by some labourers employed to remove one of the Barrows on the Beacon Hill in May, 1815. See " Archaeologia," vol. xviii., app. p. 436. London, 1817.

6 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

that the territory of the Iceni cannot have been far distant from Camulodunum. There is a class of coins which are principally found in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, possessing sufficient peculiarities of type to distinguish them as the currency of an independent tribe. On some of these coins the in- scription ECEN occurs, which has been thought to refer to the name of the tribe, and doubtless justifies the reading iceni, in preference to simeni, or any of the other forms. A tribe called Cenimagni is specified among those who, after the surrender of the Trino- bantes, sent ambassadors, and submitted themselves to Julius ; and it has been suggested by Camden, and accepted by some other writers, that in the first portion of this name we are to rfccognize that of the Iceni. The principal facts which are known in connection with this tribe are those of Tacitus (" Annals," lib. xii. cap. 31, et seg.). In a.d. 50 the Iceni are spoken of as a powerful nation, and unbroken by war, because they had voluntarily entered into an alliance with the Romans. At that time, however, they came into collision with the invaders, and were defeated by Ostorius, after which it would appear that they retained a kingly form of government only by sufferance of the Romans. This may be gathered from the testamentary disposition of one of their kings, who, in a.d, 61, when next the Iceni are mentioned, it would seem was but recently dead. This king, Prasutagus by name, renowned for his immense wealth, made the Roman emperor and his own two daughters his joint heirs, thinking by this

Book L] THE ICENI COINS. 7

expedient to place both his kingdom and family beyond the reach of injury. How this arrangement succeeded is well known ; the tyranny of the Romans having brought about the sanguinary revolt under Boadicea, the widow of Prasutagus, in which the Iceni, in conjunction with the Trinobantes and other tribes not accustomed as yet to the Roman yoke, destroyed the Roman garrison town of Camulodunum and some other Roman stations. No less than seventy thousand of the Romans and their allies are said to have been slaughtered before Suetonius Paulinus, the Roman governor and general, was in a position to engage with the insurgents. In the engagement, however, which ensued, the defeat of the Britons was complete, their army having been nearly annihilated, and Boadicea driven to end her life by poison. From this time forward there is no mention of the Iceni in the pages of Roman history.

Nearly all the gold and silver coins of the Iceni bear on the reverses the figure of a horse. Many of these horses, however, show a peculiarity in the pellets on the shoulder, and the hairy or branched character of their tails, which is confined to the Roman- British coins of this district. The inscriptions on these coins, as far as at present known, are ecen, ece, saemv, AESV, anted, and cav (?) dvro. The first person who suofSfested the attribution of. coins of this class to the Iceni, was Sir Thomas Browne, the author of "Pseudodoxia Epidemica." In his " Hydriotaphia ' (p. 7, ed. 1669) he relates that at the two Caistors, by Norwich and Yarmouth, " some British coynes of

8 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

Gold have been dispersedly found ; and no small number of Silver-pieces near Norwich, with a rude Head upon the Obverse, and an ill-formed Horse on the Reverse, with Inscriptions ic, duro, t., whether implying Iceiii, Durotidges, Tascia, or Trinobantes, we leave to higher conjecture." Gale, in his '* Itinerary of Antonious " (4to ed. 1709, p. 109), seems to refer to the same coins, and is, indeed, probably quoting Sir Thomas Browne. White, in the description of his Plate of British Coins (1773), also refers a coin of the type Plate xv.. No. 3, to the Iceni ; and Akerman, " Num. Chron.," vol. i., p. 83, expresses his opinion that this class of coins is peculiar to Cambridgeshire. To Mr. Beale Poste, however, belongs the credit of having been the first to engrave a series of these coins in one plate, as coins of the Iceni (" Archaeological Associations Journal," vol. iv., p. 107), and this attribu- tion was corroborated by Mr. C. Roach Smith, in " Num. Chron.," vol. xv., p. 98.

Commercial intercourse between the Phoenician inhabitants of Tyre and the ancient Britons is sup- posed to have occurred some time between b.c. 1200 and B.C. 600, and chiefly consisted of minerals, cattle, and the skins of wild animals. Later on we know beyond doubt British horses —

" Practised alike to stop, to turn, to chase, To dare the shock, or urge the rapid race " —

were so beautiful, so admirably trained, and so much admired, that they were exported to Rome in con- siderable numbers for the chariot and for mounting cavalry. And after the Roman conquest of Britain

Book I.] THE ICENI HORSES. 9

had taken place, these horses, Hke other products of this country, were heavily taxed by the conqueror. Camden tells us that for the tribute payable by the Britons coins were stamped for this purpose. As the coins of the Iceni, above mentioned, bore on the re- verses the figure of a horse, we may safely deduce that, even in those early times, the vicinity of New- market was celebrated for its horses. This inference is apparently confirmed by the presence of the word Tascio, or Tacia, or some abbreviation of it, on these Brito-Romano coins — a word said to be derived from task or tascu, which means, " in the original language of Britain," any load, burthen, or tribute imposed by the Tag, or prince, and that all the money so stamped had been coined for no other purpose than to pay the tribute or taxes imposed by the Romans, and levied upon certain products of the Britons.*

The following survey of, and remarks upon, the Devil's Ditch at Newmarket, are derived from a paper contributed by A. J. K. to the " Gentleman's Magazine," January, 1845 : —

In the month of August, 1842, I had the opportunity of making some notes, founded on personal inspection, of the structure of that very remarkable ancient military earthwork on Newmarket Heath, in Cambridgeshire, popularly called the Devil's Dyke. As I am not aware that any particular survey of this strong and very extensive line of defence has been made, the report of my examination of it may not be unacceptable.

I surveyed it at a spot called The Links, where it remains

* Henry's " History of Briton," vol. i.

lo THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

very bold and perfect, about a quarter of a mile south of the turnpike gate, which stands where it is crossed by the high road from Newmarket to London and Cambridge. I ob- tained, in a rough way, the following measurements, which cannot, however, greatly err from the truth.

This formidable vallum or rampart was commenced probably at its southern extremity, where the Ordnance map of Cambridgeshire marks the site of an ancient entrenched camp at Wood Ditton ; there are also some tumuli northward of that place in front of the dyke, called, traditionally, " The Two Captains." Wood Ditton is evidently a name associated with the dyke, implying the wood on the ditch. The work is continued northward, across Newmarket Heath, in a straight course of eight miles, to a stream near the village of Reach, whose appellation, from the Saxon, poecan, indi- cates the point to which the dyke reached or extended (see the Plan), so that its right flank rested on streams and marsh lands, and its left on a forest tract. The vallum being thrown up on the eastern side, shows that the entrenchment was in- tended to secure the plain of Newmarket against an enemy approaching from the westward by a barrier, impregnable if properly defended. Such, indeed, it must have been, for the escarpment of the rampire from the bottom of the ditch in the most perfect places measures not less than ninety feet, and is inclined at an angle of seventy degrees. On the top of the rampart is a cursus, or way, eighteen feet in breadth, sufficiently wide for the passage of cavalry or chariots. I have been told that, some years since, fragments of bronze furniture of chariot wheels were dug up near the line of dyke, but I cannot verify the information. On the top of the rampart I thought I could distinguish faint traces of a parapet of turf The whole was probably strengthened by a line of palisades or stakes. It will be readily imagined how strong a defence this steep and bristled wall of earth must then have formed. Even now, to ascend its outward base from the bottom of the ditch is a feat of no small difficulty and labour. The excavation for the work was made in the solid stratum of chalk, which lies on Newmarket Plain next under

Book L] THE DEVIL'S DITCH. n

the vegetable mould ; the rampire was doubtless faced with green sods, and nature has continued the surface of sward to this day.

About seven miles to the westward, crossing the high road, and running nearly in a parallel line, is another ditch and rampart, called the Fleam Dyke, which may be rendered, from the Saxon, the dyke of flight or refuge (Fleam), as it probably was for the inhabitants of East Anglia, being an obstacle against the assaults of the Mercians. I have not yet had the opportunity of comparing the construction of the Fleam Dyke with that of the Devil's Dyke ; it varies very little in extent from the latter ; it is called also, from the length of its course, the Seven-Mile Dyke. On the inner or eastern side of this work, near the high road, is a considerable tumulus, called in the maps, Matlow Hill.

I am strongly disposed to think that the Devil's Dyke, and perhaps other lines of entrenchment of a similar character in the neighbourhood, were constructed by the Roman legions at an early period in Britain. Camden enumerates three military dykes in Cambridgeshire besides the Devil's Dyke, the strongest of them all. The Roman forces, after obtaining their first footing in Britain, occupied and colonized some eligible positions in Kent, Middlesex, and Essex ; we find them at the time of the revolt of Boadicea at Camulodunum (Col- chester), Verulamium (St. Alban's), and Londinium (London). The Trinobantes and Iceni were perhaps the first British districts which received the Roman yoke. . . .

The first mention of the Devil's Dyke in history is found in the Saxon Chronicle under the year 905, which tells us that the land of the East Angles was laid waste between the dyke and the Ouse, as far northward as the fens. The dyke was termed in the Norman period St. Edmunds Dyke, because the jurisdiction of the abbots of Bury St. Edmunds extended so far westward. The description of the dyke by Abbo Floxiacensis, a writer of the tenth century who had visited Britain, as quoted by Camden (edited by Gibson), is remark- able for its brief accuracy. Speaking of East Anglia, he says, that on the west " this province joins to the rest of the island,

12 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

and consequently there is a passage ; but to prevent the enemies' frequent incursions it is defended by a bank like a lofty wall, and a ditch." A reference to the sketch and section accompanying these notes will at- a glance show the appropriate character of Abbo's words. . . ,

I have hitherto omitted to mention that I observed some fragments of Roman tile scattered near the dyke, and that it appears to have been cut through in forming the present high road from Newmarket to Cambridge. That is some evidence for its very high antiquity. I recommend the explorator of this interesting fortification not to fail to visit the dyke at the Links, to descend into the fosse, and obtain the view I have given of its course, ascending the rising grounds southward in the direction of Wood Ditton. It will then be allowed I have drawn no exaggerated picture of the work. On the race- course at Newmarket its character is not so bold ; it has been broken through in order to form apertures for the running horses at places which the general name of gates {i.e. gaps) has been given, and the rains of centuries have had more effect in reducing its features. If opportunity should occur, I shall be happy at some future period to survey the entrench- ments marked in the Ordnance map at Wood Ditton, and to trace the dyke to its termination at Reach.

The question in the meantime still lies open, whether the Devil's Dyke is a Roman or a Saxon work, and any informa- tion tending to settle that point, conveyed through the medium of the " Gentleman's Magazine," will be received with satisfaction. The generations of mankind rapidly pass away, but the monuments which their labour has erected on the surface of the earth remain. Tradition generally affords an uncertain or exaggerated view of their origin, if remote, or, at a loss for its traces, proclaims them the work of demons. Written records are sometimes scanty, or altogether wanting. Documents and relics are often worthless, if not submitted to critical analysis. In many cases the aid of actual survey and delineation, and of the mattock and spade, must be resorted to. Coins, military weapons (observing whether these be of brass or iron), relics of domestic utensils or sepulchral rites.

WW

PLAN OF devil's DYKE, NEWMARKET.

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Book I.] EXNING. 13

may then be sought for, and, as these are evidences generally capable of comparative and chronological classification, they become of importance, and in the hands of a judicious collector are no longer rubbish unfit to occupy that most valuable of commodities entrusted to our husbandry — time.

Accordingf to the best authorities the Devil's Ditch was the boundary between the two Saxon kingdoms of East Anglia and Mercia while the Heptarchy lasted, and although we have no definite evidence of the town of Newmarket, pe^^ se, having existed prior to the Middle Aees, it seems that this unnamed hamlet formed a part of Exning in the Anglo-Saxon era. Exning may be said to have decayed in the same ratio as New- market increased in importance and prominence. Formerly the parish of Exning comprehended the whole of what is now that of Newmarket, and its church was the mother-church to which the flock of the latter resorted. Consequently Newmarket may claim, as a portion of Exning (in those days of geographical ambiguity) the honour of being the birth-place of St. Etheldreda, a daughter of Anna and Hereswitha, king and queen of East Anglia, circa a.d. 630. Exning was anciently called Ixning — a word evidently derivable from that of Iceni, by which Coesar and Tacitus described the inhabitants of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk.* There is no name in the calendar of female British saints more fertile of strange incident and marvellous adventure than that of our St. Etheldreda ; and one of the most

* See Baudrand's Geography, p. 503, edit. Paris, 1682 ; and Camden, Mag. Brit., vol. v., p. 220, edit. orig.

14 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

curious manuscripts extant in this country, forms the precious repository of her achievements,*

Now, havinsf regard to the fact that in com- paratively modern times royalty was so closely associated with Newmarket, we are induced to give a brief memoir of St. Etheldreda,^ as she was one of the earliest sovereigns connected with the Town, some six hundred years before it was even christened ; and may she not without profanity be termed the Patron Saint of the Metropolis of the Turf ?

1 Born at Exiling, about the year 630, Etheldreda, daughter of Anna, king of the East- Angles, and Heresvvitha his queen, was bred and educated there under the supervision of her illustrious parents, from whom she received the first im- pressions of religion and virtue. In her childhood, the mild- ness of her temper, and innocence of behaviour, joined with the beauty of her person, rendered her the delight of all that were about her ; but that which was most observable in her constitution at that time of her life, was a serious turn of mind, and a bent to religious duties. It was very early that she devoted herself to the service of God, and had formed in her mind a design of preserving in a virgin state during life, a species of piety in that age held in high esteem, and requisite to Christian perfection, which this princess was generally thought to have carried to a pitch of heroism.

The amiableness of her person, heightened by those excel- lent endowments of mind she was possessed of, in a court where the most exalted piety and the strictest virtue were considered as the highest and noblest accomplishments, could not fail of exciting the admiration of many, and made her name celebrated in the other Saxon courts. There were several persons of the highest rank who became suitors for

* The Liber Eliensis . See Wharton, vol. i., pp. 593 — 688 ; Gale, vol. i. pp. 463-525-

Book I.] ST. ETHELDREDA. 15

her in marriage ; but as the princess had already formed in her mind a different scheme of life, and was bent on a religious retirement from the world, she declined every offer that could be made of that kind. Many difficulties still lay in her way that thwarted her inclinations, and seemed to require an alteration of her purpose ; for Tonbert, a prominent nobleman among the East-Angles, whom the Venerable Bede calls Prince of the South-Gervii, then in high favour with the king her father, asked her of him in marriage, and obtained his consent ; so that, with much reluctance on her part, she was at length prevailed upon by the authority of her parents, to give up her will, and was accordingly married to that prince in the year 652 ; and by this marriage had the Isle of Ely settled on her in dower.

Etheldreda, who was now engaged in the bonds of marriage, did not, however, despair of accomplishing her design, but made use of all the arguments she was mistress of to persuade her husband, who is said to have been a person of great virtue and piety, to acquiesce in her opinion ; and by prayers and entreaties gained his permission that she might enjoy her own way, and at length prevailed on him to follow her example, in a total and voluntary abstinence from the nuptial bed. In this manner they lived together, by mutual consent, about three years ; and after that Tonbert died ; and by his death the Princess Etheldreda came into full possession of the Isle of Ely, according to the settlement made before her marriage with that prince.

The Princess Etheldreda being now at liberty to indulge her natural disposition to solitude and devotion, retired from Exning to her Isle of Ely, where she was attended only by a i&v^ particular friends that she had made choice of on account of their religious qualifications. When she thus with- drew from the world it was her real intention to return no more to it, but — whilst her temporal affairs were carried on by her chief minister, Ovin, to whom she had committed the administration of them — to give herself up wholly to the exercise of devotion and all other religious duties. The place she had chosen seemed very proper for her purpose ; for as an

i6 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book 1.

island it was separated, as it were, from the outside world, so that nature seemed to have formed it for solitude and con- templation.

After she had lived some time in this recluse state, Prince Egfrid, " son of Oswy, King of Northumberland and Monarch of the English nation," hearing of her extraordinary virtues and piety, desired to obtain her in marriage. But he soon found that worldly riches and honours had little or no effect to induce her to change her condition, and therefore had recourse to her uncle Ethelwold, then king of East-Anglia, and to others who might be thought to have the greatest influence over her, to persuade her to accept his offer. The kingdom of East-Anglia was then in an unsettled state, from which it had not quite recovered since the death of her father Anna. Ethelwold, therefore, judging that the offer of an alliance with so great a prince was not to be neglected, and that it would prove highly beneficial to his kingdom, most earnestly persuaded her to accept the prince's offer ; and at his solicitation she at length gave her consent, and was accordingly conducted to York, attended by Ovin, her prime minister, with many other of the East-Anglian nobility of both sexes, and there married to Prince Egfrid with great pomp and solemnity. The Venerable Bede, who flourished in those days, and was personally acquainted with this model husband and wife, asserts that, although Etheldreda continued Egfrid's consort for twelve years, " yet she remained glorious in the perpetual integrity of virginity."

In the year 670, King Oswy died, and Egfrid, his son, who had been his coadjutor in the latter part of his reign, succeeded him both in the kingdom of Northumberland and the monarch of the English nation ; in consequence of which Etheldreda was raised to the highest degree of worldly honour, being now queen to the greatest of the Saxon kings. Her exalted station made no change in her estimation of secular honours, as her sentiments continued invariably the same ; and indeed her intention of quitting them seems rather to have been hastened by that event ; for she soon after began to solicit the king's leave to depart the court, and retire into some

Book I.] ST. ETHELDREDA. 17

monastery, where she might have more leisure to attend on the duties of her religion. The king, who had always shown the greatest regard and esteem for the queen, at first refused to give her leave, but was at length prevailed upon to give his consent ; accordingly, she soon after went and entered the monastery of Coldingham, where St. Ebba, the king's aunt, then presided as abbess, and received the sacred veil from the hands of Wilfrid, bishop of York.

The queen's example influenced several other great persons of both sexes in that kingdom to renounce the world about the same time, and to retire into different monasteries ; of which number was that Grand Old Man, Ovin, her prime minister, who had attended her from the Isle of Ely on her marriage, and had continued in her service ever since. " The fervour of his faith now increasing," says Bede, " he deter- mined to bid the world adieu ; and this he did effectually, for divesting himself entirely of worldly concerns, and disposing of his temporal possessions, he put on a mean habit, and zvith only an ax for cutting wood in his hands, he came to the monastery of the Reverend Father St. Chad, at Lastingham in Yorkshire, to whom he signified his intention, not to live in idleness, but to work and labour with his hands : and renounced the world, with a pure intention of obtaining thereby a reward in heaven." This Grand Old Man became so eminent for his piety, that he acquired the reputation of a saint, and his name is inserted in the Roman calendar accordingly.

Queen Etheldreda had now dedicated herself wholly to religion, and was engaged in the practice of the austerities that attend the monastic state of life, while the king's affection and esteem for her continued the same. He blamed himself for having assented to the separation, and was observed to be very much dissatisfied and uneasy. Those who were imme- diately about his person, soon found out the real cause of his disposition, and advised him to take the queen again by force out of the monastery. And he was without much difficulty persuaded to follow their counsel, for not long afterwards he set forward with a few of his attendants in order to convey

VOL. I. c

1 8 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

her thence. The abbess, however, had by some means or other got intelligence of the king's design in coming, and took care to inform the queen of it, and withal suggested to her that the only means left to prevent the ill consequences that might ensue, would be to leave the place without delay, and retire as well as she could to Exning. To this course she consented, and immediately set out on her way, and was but just started when the king arrived.

Finding the queen was gone, the king resolved to pursue her ; and in his way came up to the side of a rock where she and her companions were, but was prevented from coming near them by a sudden and unusual inundation of water from the sea, which surrounded the rock where the queen and her two attendants reposed ; and it having continued in that state several days, without returning into its former channel, the king interpreted it as the interposition of heaven in her favour, and concluded that it was not the will of God that he should have her again ; he abandoned the chase, returned to York, and left his queen quietly to pursue her journey.

After the king returned to York, the queen and her two companions left their temporary place of refuge, and travelled as far as the river H umber, over which they were safely con- veyed, and arrived at Wintringham ; thence, turning into a village called Alftham, they were courteously entertained, and stayed a few days, and " there she built a church." From Alftham they continued their journey on foot, in the habit of pilgrims, not by the direct road, but through by-ways and lanes, to avoid the danger of pursuers. It happened that one day, being tired with the length of the journey and heat of the weather, and coming to a commodious spot of ground, the queen found herself disposed to rest, and laid herself down to sleep, whilst two faithful attendants watched by her. On awaking she observed that the pilgrim's staff, which she had fixed in the ground by her, had all the appearance of vegetable life in it, and found that it had taken root in the earth, and put forth leaves and shoots. Her staff, thus miraculously planted, it is said, afterwards became one of the tallest and most flourishing trees in the country, and the

Book L] ST. ETHELDREDA.

19

place was called Etheldrede's-Stow, and a church was there built in honour of this holy queen.

After a difficult and hazardous journey, the queen and her two attendants arrived safe at Ely, and was received by her people with all the honours due to her character and high station. On her arrival there her first design was to have repaired the old church, then in ruins, and to have dedicated it, as it had formerly been, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to have built a monastery there ; but before this design had proceeded too far a more commodious situation was made choice of, as fitter for her purpose, and in this place the foundations of her church were laid, and the monastery began to be built in which both monks and nuns lived in society and regular observance under the founder queen, St. Etheldreda. For the maintenance and support of this monastery the royal foundress settled the whole Isle of Ely, being a princi- pality with temporal power and jurisdiction, and all the profits arising from the government of it. And to secure this, her royal foundation, the more firmly and securely to future ages, she gave in charge and recommended it to the care of Bishop Wilfrid, who in the year 678 was on his departure to Rome to procure the Pope's confirmation of her grant, and of the liberties and immunities of the place, that her congregation there assembled might continue in the service of God and in the regular observance of discipline, free from want and from the disturbance or exaction of any officer of what power, eminence, or authority whatsoever ; which confirma- tion Wilfrid is said to have obtained from the Pope. But before his return from Rome, the royal abbess died of an epidemical disease that prevailed at that time in her monastery, and had carried off several of the nuns and others of her confraternity. She is said, by the spirit of prophecy, to have foretold this contagious distemper, and the exact number of her household that would be taken out of the world by it, and herself among the rest. She died June 23, A.D. 679, in the seventh year after she was made abbess, in the reign of her brother Adulfus, king of East Anglia, and of her nephew Lothair, king of Kent, her late husband,

20 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

Egfrid, still reigning in Northumberland. It only remains for us to add that in the year 1107 the monastery was con- verted into a bishopric, and in the following year, by consent of the Pope, the episcopal see of Ely was founded, and that from that day to this the cathedral is a prominent landmark, visible from most parts of Newmarket Heath.

As to the antiquity of the turf in England, Har- grove, in his " History and Description of the Ancient City of York" (vol. i., p. 514), says we may trace the origin of horse-racing far beyond the days of Camden, " even to the time of the Romans." Referring to the races at York, he observes : " We know that the Campos Martios was the place where the illustrious Roman youths performed every kind of exercise peculiar to the age, such as throwing the discus, hurling the javelin, wrestling, etc. ; and where they also practised the diversion of horse-racing and chariot- racing ; hence, if Drake was correct in his idea, we may figure to ourselves the gay scenes which were exhibited, though they are not recorded in the page of history." '"

It does not come within the scope of this work to minutely trace the nature and variety of all the foreign strains of the equine race introduced and subsequently

* "'Just within the entrenchments,' says Morton, writing in 1712, ' the whole circuit of the Area, excepting only about a Quarter of a Mile in the Northern part of it, has for several years been a celebrated Course for Horse Races ; which, as it has been measured, and is now usually computed, wants about 28 Yards of Two Miles.'" — "Natural Hist. Northamptonshire." On the preceding Baker observes : — " The Britons were much attached to this diversion. May not this have been one of their Cursus ? Others have been traced on the Wiltshire downs. In modern times the races here were held annually for two, and some- times three days, till the year 1741, when they were practically discon- tinued, though occasionally resumed till the hill was enclosed." — "Hist, and Antq. of the Town and Co. of Northampton," vol. i., p. 347.

Book I.] ORIGIN OF THE TURF. 21

cultivated in the British Islands for racing and other purposes. It must here suffice to mention that all the horses which have been successful on the Turf, have been, from the earliest times, of Eastern descent. Thus, in the earliest mention of horse-races in England, in the reign of the Emperor Severus Alexander (a.d. 210), at Netherby in Yorkshire, the horses were delicate Arabs of famous speed and stamina, but so unsuitable to this climate that their owners were obliged to construct an enclosed training ground in order to prepare them for their engagements.* The other stations in England identified with the Turf during the Roman occupation were Rushborough, Carleon, Silchester, and Dorchester. The superiority of the English thoroughbred horse is attributable, if not directly traceable, to the Eastern blood introduced and maintained by the Romans at the period above mentioned. Subsequently the best English mares were covered by Arabian stallions which continued to be imported during the early and middle ages, and in a more marked degree and more closely allied with the Turf, in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

Horse-racing is incidentally mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon era. When the Saxon youth attained the age of fifteen he had the right of choosing his path in life. At this period we find them striving to excel each other in horse-racing. A person in Bede describes himself as one of a party who on their journey came to a spacious plain adapted to a race-course. The

' Basilicam equestran exercitatoriam. Vide Brace's " Roman Wall."

22 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

young- men were anxious to prove their horses in the greater course, or, as the Saxon translator expresses it, that " we might run and try which had the swiftest horse. The individual spoken of at last joined them, but his animated horse, attempting to clear a cavity in the way, by a violent leap, the youth was thrown senseless against a stone, and with difficulty brought to life." This probably occurred at Newmarket, within the dominion of East Anglia, in the reign of Edmund King and Martyr ; but in those days New- market Heath was unknown and unnamed, nor indeed had Cambridgeshire any geographical identification.

"If we appeal to the poets," says Strutt, "we shall find that swift-running horses were greatly esteemed by the heroes who figure in their romances, and rated at prodigious prices ; for instance, in an ancient poem, which celebrates the warlike actions of Richard the First, it is said, that in the camp of the Emperor, as he is called, of Cyprus,

Two stedes fownde kinge Richarde,

Thatt von Favell, thatt other Lyard ;

Yn this worlde, they hadde no pare [equal] ;

Dromedary, neither destrere,

Stede, rabyte, ne cammele, [steed, rabbit, or camel]

Goeth none so swyfte withoute fayle ;

For a thousand pownd of golde,

Ne sholde the one be solde.

And although the rhymist may be thought to have claimed the poetical licence for exaggeration respecting the value of these two famous steeds, the statement plainly indicates that in his time there were horses very highly prized on account of their swiftness. We do not find, indeed, that they were kept for the purpose of racing only, as horses are in the present day, but rather for hunting and other purposes of a similar nature ; and also to be used by heralds and messengers in case of urgency." *

* " Rural Sports," book i., chap, iii., sect. 7.

Book I.] PROGRESS OF THE TURF. 23

"Running-horses," observes Strutt, "are frequently men- tioned in the registers of the royal expenditure. It is notorious," he adds, " that King John was so fond of swift horses and dogs for the chase, that he received many of his fines in one or the other ; but at the same time, it does not appear that he used the horses for any purpose of pleasure beyond the pursuits of hunting, hawking, and such like sports of the field." * King John was a large importer of horses of Eastern breed, of which many are mentioned as having been purchased by him, in the Misoe and other rolls of his reign.

Fitz Stephen mentions horse-races as having occurred in Smithfield in the reign of Henry II. But it is probable these were more in the nature of tests, preparatory to sales, than regular organized meetings, and do not apply to the Turf in a modern sense. However, the earliest description of a horse-race, /^-r se, that we have discovered, took place in 1377. Unfortunately the locality where it took place is not men- tioned. The horses in question belonged to the Prince of Wales (afterwards Richard II.) and the Earl of Arundel — owners up. It is described as follows by the Marquis de Saluces (a contemporary writer) in a unique manuscript formerly preserved in the Royal Library, Paris : —

" Un jour li Roy une feste faisoit

De son filz qui chevalier faire vouloit,

Lk, faisoit courer les destriers,

Et si y avoit joiaulz chiers,

Qui devoient estre cellui

Qui avoit meilleur cheval o lui,

Et qui mieulx seroit courant

Et aux joiaulz plus tost venant.

Lk furent assemblez

Tous les destriers de mains contriez.

Le filz le Roy y fu mesmement,

Qui bien cuidoit estre gangnant

Car cuidoit avoir meilleur destrier

Que on peut nulle part trouver ;

Mais au derrein ce fu pour ndant,

Que Bovez fut trestous passant

* " Rural Sports," book i., chap, iii., sect. 6.

24 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

Par la force de son destrier, Qui en mains lieux lui fu mestier, Ce fu Arondel le courant ; N'est meilleur ou firmament."

It seems that the Earl of Arundel's ^ horse subsequently- passed into the possession of Sir Alured de Vere, from whom it was purchased by Richard ^ soon after his accession to the crown for a sum equal to about ^^4000 in our money, as appears by a writ of Privy Seal dated April 5th, 1378.*

2 Richard Fitzalan, 14th Earl OF Arundel, is said to have been the first issue of his father's second marriage with Eleanor Beaumont, and was probably born about the year 1346. He was a Knight of the Garter, and held various important offices of state, particularly that of Lord High Admiral of England. In the spring of 1387, the earl put to sea with a powerful force, and if a series of brilliant suc- cesses could have atoned for the political crimes into which he afterwards suffered himself to be betrayed, the splendour of his present achievements might fairly have vindicated him in the eyes of the world. His first exploit was to capture a large convoy of French, Spanish, and Flemish merchantmen, numbering over a hundred sail, which he intercepted in its return from Rochelle. To disencumber himself of the im- mense booty he had acquired, he returned to harbour with upwards of a hundred sail, which he had taken, and a quantity of wine, according to one historian of no less than nineteen thousand tuns. Froissart informs us that, in consequence of this capture, the best wine was for several months sold in London at fourpence the gallon. After refitting his vessels, he once more embarked for the French coast ; and, having thrown provisions into the town of Brest, then besieged by the Duke of Bretagne, sailed to Sluys, destroyed and captured the vessels in the harbour, and laid waste to the country to a distance of more than ten leagues. This terminated his operations until the following spring, when they were renewed with equal success on the western coast of France ; and

* Issue Roll, Michaelmas, i Rich. II., Manuscript P. R. O.

Book L] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 25

Torigni, Marans, Rochelle, with the numerous ports in Sain- tonge, Poictou, and Normandy, were successively compelled to acknowledge the power of his arms.

It is not within our province to follow the political move- ment of the earl from this date to 1389, when he was dismissed from his offices by the king ; but in the course of the following year he succeeded in effecting his reconciliation at court, and in August, 1390, we find him engaged in a hunting party with the sovereign, on the estate of the Duke of Lancaster, at Leicester. In 1394 he obtained an especial pardon for all his political offences ; and, having become disgusted with public life, procured a particular exemption from all attend- ance in Parliament for the future.

During five years Arundel continued to enjoy that privacy which the tumultuous scenes of his past life must have rendered more than usually delightful. But on July 12th, 1397, he was suddenly seized, hurried to the Tower, and thence, for greater security, conveyed to Carisbrook Castle, in the Isle of Wight. His arraignment, trial, and execution, for an alleged treason, for which he had already obtained a full pardon, is a matter of history. When the sentence was pro- nounced he turned to his guards, cheerfully resigned himself to their charge, and was instantly hurried from Westminster to Tower Hill, the place appointed for the scene of his last conflict. When he had ascended the platform, he paused for a moment to survey the assembled multitude, took up the axe which lay upon the block before him, and, having felt its edge, playfully remarked that it was sufficiently sharp, and that he hoped the executioner would perform his office ex- peditiously. He then knelt down, and at one stroke his head was severed from his body. Thus was done to death Richard Fitzalan, 14th Earl of Arundel, one of the fathers of the British Turf in the Dark Ages.*

* "The Hist, and Antq. of the Castle and Town of Arundel," by the Rev. M. A. Tierney (F.S.A. Lend., 1834), pp. 240-276. It is worth noting that the earl bequeathed to his brother, the Archbishop of Canter- bury, a gilt and enamelled cup, " with the stag on its cover," which may have been a prize won at some horse-race. His effects amounted in the

26 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

^ Richard of Bordeaux, son and heir of the Black Prince, ascended the throne, on the death of his grandfather, Edward III., June 21, 1377. The chief events of RiCHARD II.'s stormy- reign — the expedition to Bretagne, the ensuing poll-tax, the insurrection under Wat Tyler, the dawn of the Reformation under Wycliffe, the translation of the Bible, the expedition to Ireland, Bolingbroke's usurpation, Richard's return to England, his deposition and imprisonment in Rhuddlan Castle, the proceedings in Parliament, the loyalty of the Man of Newmarket, and the accession of Bolingbroke — are too prominent events in the history of England to require any further allusion at our hands. None of our historians refer to Richard as a Turfite ; many of them are contradictory as to the cause of his death. Shakespeare, as a rule, is not safe to follow on strictly historical subjects ; but as the Immortal Bard of Avon gave the best tip on record for the Derby of 1884,* we are induced to give the poet's version of the last scenes of the earthly career of Richard II. After Bolingbroke assumed the purple and occupied the throne, by the title of Henry IV., he did not deem himself secure as long as his deposed cousin lived. Deciding to have Richard murdered, Bolingbroke employed Sir Pierce Exton to do the deed. He proceeds to Pomfret, where Richard is confined a prisoner in the dungeon of the castle. Here we find the dethroned monarch in abject misery, almost longing for death, when a visitor arrives : a poor groom, formerly employed in the royal stable, who, travelling towards York, with much ado, got leave to look upon his sometime royal master's face. He mentions the joyous scenes in the streets as Bolingbroke went to be crowned at Westminster, mounted on roan Bar- bary, the horse that Richard often bestrode, the horse that he (the groom) used to so carefully dress. The incident revives old memories and pleasing incidents in the poor cap- tive's breast, and thus the dialogue proceeds —

aggregate to 108,395 marks 12s. \d., which, according to a calculation made by Peter le Neve in 1709, would have been equal, at that date, in modern currency, to ^4,335,833 lis. %d.

* See King Richard II., Act II., Scene i, last line.

Book I.] RICHARD II. 27

King Richard. Rode he on Barbary ? Tell me, gentle friend, How went he under him ?

Groom. So proudly as if he had disdain'd the ground.

King Richard. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back ! That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand ; This hand hath made him proud with clapping him. Would he not stumble 'i Would he not fall down, (Since pride must have a fall,) and break the neck Of that proud man that did usurp his back ? Forgiveness, horse ! why do I rail on thee, Since thou, created to be awed by man, Wast born to bear .' I was not made a horse ; And yet I bear a burden like an ass, Spur-gall'd, and tired, by jauncing Bolingbroke.

The groom takes his leave, and soon after Exton arrives and assassinates Richard, who, after a futile effort to defend himself, falls —

As full of valour, as of royal blood.

"In the Middle Ages," says Strutt, "there were certain seasons of the year when the nobility indulged themselves in running horses, and especially in the Easter and Whitsuntide holidays. In the old metrical romance of ' Sir Bevis of Southampton,' it is said —

In former at Whitsontyde, Whan knightes most on horsebacke ride ; A cours, let they make on a daye, Steedes, and Palfraye, for to assaye ; Whiche horse, that best may ren, Three myles the cours was then, Who that might ryde him shoulde Have forty pounds of redy golde.

" A writer of the seventeenth century tells us that horse- racing, which had formerly been practised at Eastertide, ' was then put down as being contrary to the holiness of the season ; ' but for this prohibition I have no further authority." *

Strutt mentions that "in the reign of Edward III., run- ning horses purchased for the king's service were generally estimated at twenty marks, or ;^I3 6s. 8d. each; but some few of them were prized as high as twenty-five marks. I

* " Sports and Pastimes," book i., chap, iii., p. 32.

28 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book T.

met with an entry," he adds, "dated the ninth year of this king's reign, which states, that the King of Navarre sent him as a present two running-horses, which, I presume, were very valuable, because he gave the person who brought them no less than one hundred shillings for his reward." *

The contemporary and unknown author of a French Metrical History of the Deposition of Richard 11. (now pre- served in the British Museum) says the king had " many a good horse of foreign breed." Towards the close of his grand- father's wars in France, coursers had become so scarce that the Parliament of 1370 interfered to check the exorbitant demands of the dealers. No serious drain from the same cause could have taken place now for some years ; but it appears that Richard drew the choicest of his stud from abroad.

The king was seldom at a loss for ordinary horses when any particular occasion called for them ; he had only to go to the abbeys. They were all ransacked for this purpose when he was about to attend at a conference with the King of France at Calais ; and great demands were made upon them for the campaign in Ireland. " Religion," says a contemporary satirist, " is a rider, a pricker of a palfrey from manor to manor," and Chaucer,t who has frequently noticed the subject, observes of his monk :

" Full many a daintie horse had he in stable ; "

and mentions the high condition of that on which he rode ; " his hors in great estate," or " of price."

The young gallant of the period likewise aspired, and

* " Sports and Pastimes," book i., chap, iii., sec. 6.

t Also referred to by other old writers :

Le Roman de Roncevaux MS. : Et sui montd el bon Cheval de pris.

Le Roman de Gay don MS. : Un Chevalier sor un D'estrier de pris.

Le Roman fl'i? Garin MS. : En Destre meinent les Auferrans de pris.

Infra : Girbert se sist sor le Cheval de pris.

Le Roman de Girard de Vientie MS. : S'or me donnez ce bon Destrer de pris.

It is obvious these were thoroughbreds of the period, and known as " horses of price," and doubtless were of Eastern descent —

Le Roman d' A this MS. : Chevaulx d'Espaigne et Arabis.

Book I.] STUDS. 29

stopped at no cost, to obtain swift coursers. The attendant upon Richesse in the Romaunte of the Rose is a counterpart of Richard II. in this particular —

" Hys luste was moche in housholdynge, In clothyng he was full fetyse, And loved well to have a horse of pryse. He wende to have reproved be Of thefte or murdre, yf that he Had in hys stable an hackenay.

Much abuse occurred in the impressment of horses for the king's service, for which remedy was provided by the statute 20 Rich. II., c. 5, against "people of evil condition, who of their own authority take and cause to be taken royally horses, saying and devising that they be to ride on hasty messages and business, whereof truth they be no wise privy to any business or message ; but only in deceipt and subtility by such colour and device do take horses, and the said hastily do ride, and evil thereat, having no manner of conscience or compassion in this behalf ; so that the said horses become all spoiled and foundered, paying no manner of thing nor penny for the same, nor giving them any manner of sustenance ; " and to complete this picture of cheating it further states that " some such manner of people changing and altering their names, do take and ride such horses, and carry them far from thence to another place, so that they to whom they belong can never after by any means see, have again, nor know their said horses where they be." It was usual to feed coursers in training with horse-bread {payn pour chivmiLx), and to set their coats with cloths.*

Some of the nobility were great breeders, and kept large studs ; and the wealthy regular clergy always encouraged a race of good horses.

Horses of Eastern breed [cotircers, etc.), for racing, etc., as we have already mentioned, were cultivated in our country when it was ruled by the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Normans. Great im-

* Cotton, MS. Vesp. F. XIII. 43.

30 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

portance was attached to the royal studs, and to those kept up by the great barons and ecclesiastics throughout the country. These examples could be largely multiplied if it were necessary to adduce further proofs of the antiquity and the cultivation of Eastern strains to temp. Richard II.* And there is no doubt, at this particular epoch, the thoroughbred English horse (" Eques Britannicus ") was characteristic of the nation. They were recognized, and their praises sung, abroad, where their owners invariably carried off the Mantle f with them ; while at home they must have been equally known to fame, although their victories have found no recorder, or if recorded the chronicles have perished.

* Cursor Equus, Coicrsier. Will. Malmesbury, lib. 2. de Gestis Ang. cap. 6 : Equos Cursores plurimos, cum phaleris fulvum, ut Maro ait, mandentes sub dentibus aurum (a.d. 926).

Guntherus, lib. 7. Ligurini :

Non tamen aut galea muniri tempera curat, Aut Cursoris equi, quo prtelia semper agebat, Officio fungi, etc.

See in Conseuetudine Andegavensi, art. 47, et Cenomanensi, art. 55.

Custodes Equicii Regis. — Abbr. Rotul., torn, i., p. 234, b. Suth., rot. loetp. 273, b. Essex, rot. 12 et torn, ii., p. 53, b. 71, b. 97, b. etc. Equi jumenta et Equita, p. 257, b. Ebor, rot. 5. Custodia equorum, jumen- torum, pullanorum et Equicii, ibid., p. 211, b. Ebor., rot. 23. Equos, equas, et pullanos de Equitio, Dom. Reg. Oxon., rot. 11, p. 131. — Collection of expenses, etc., of the royal studs, etc. in P.R.O.

t The usual prize given on the Continent for horse-races, about this period, was a mantle of silk, cloth, or rich stuff. See Petrarch's reference to English horses. For description of the races at Milan, Florence, Pisa, etc., etc., see " Memoirs of Sir John Hawkwood," Lond. 1780 — 1782, No. IV. The horses brought by English pilgrims to the Holy Land in the fourteenth century were much prized by potentates in "foreign" parts " beyond the seas." Some interesting references to horse-racing in Spain about this period, when the Peninsula was the home of the thoroughbred barb, will be found in the Chevalier de Bourgoame's Travels, ch. iii., ed. Paris, 1803.

Book L] THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 31

Unhappily, the deposition of Richard II., and after- wards the Wars of the Roses, effectually put a stop to all rural sports in England, except at rare intervals, until the accession of the House of Tudor. We have seen the Land Leaguers in Ireland putting down hunting and racing in that island. We can imagine the impossibility of any sports in England during the Civil Wars, at any rate there is no rural history of that terrible period ; it is all fire, rapine, and the sword. Those who had good horses were only too glad to dispose of them at any price, and many a noble thoroughbred was surreptitiously sent out of the country. Foreign breeders made much of the oppor- tunity, and secured the best strains, doubtless, on very easy terms. This was a sad calamity — the results of breeding for centuries being almost annihilated. Yet, curiously enough, after several generations had elapsed, some descendants of those English thoroughbreds " worth their weight in silver," came back to England in the reign of Henry VIII.*

The House of Este — both the German and Italian branches respectively, Dukes of Ferrara and Mantua — was closely connected by marriage, etc., with the sovereigns of England from this period to temp. Queen Mary. These dukes obtained, from time to time, some of the best thoroughbreds at the royal studs in England, which they cultivated with the greatest

* English thoroughbred horses were first imported to America about 1 50 years ago. We see their descendants, Foxhall and Iroquois, taking the highest prizes on the turf, and probably the best horses of the day. An analogous case is furnished in Henry VIII.'S Governatore and Altobello.

32 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

assiduity. At the commencement of the Wars of the Roses, Borso of Este, created Duke of Ferrara by Pope Pius II., obtained many of the best thoroughbreds our country possessed, with which he augmented his stud, and probably made it one of the best to be found at that time in the world. His successor, Duke Hercules, likewise obtained some of the best strains it was possible to procure in England and Ireland.* Many of these, especially the Eltham breed, were at the Mantua paddocks highly prized and carefully preserved, so much so, that the strain of English blood {equi. Brit?) was carefully transmitted and reintroduced into this country in 1515.

From the earliest times horses could be taken for the service of the king without warrant (see Mag. Car, Statutes — 25 Edw. I., c. 21 ; -^^6 Edw. III., cc. 4, 5). In the reign of

* The four first Marquises of Este were brought into juxtaposition with England from 1377 to 1450, and originally bore the title of "Vicar of the See Apostolic in Ferrara." Marquis Leonello took for his second wife Maria, natural daughter of Alfonso of Aragon, who expelled Rdn^ of Anjo from Naples on the ist of June, 1442. On the 30th of May, 1445, King Rand's daughter, Marguerite, was crowned Queen of England in Westminster Hall. Early in her tempestuous reign we find the beautiful young queen evincing her solicitude for the cultivation of letters and race- horses. She founded Queen's College in Cambridge, and sent her Master of the Horse, Reynold Chicheley, with a draft of horses from the Eltham ^ stud to the Marquis, who was so pleased with the present, and knowing the queen's predilection for literature, that he appointed Chicheley to the renowned office of rector of the "Alimental University" of Ferrara {insigne officiwn rectoratiis alini studii hi iirbc I'estra Ferrarte/ise), for which she returned most hearty thanks.

1 Eltham was recently celebrated for the stud of the late Mr. Blenkiron. On his death, in 1872, it was sold by Messrs. Tattersall, when the sale realized ^107,100. It was finally sold off in 1883. The Middle Park Plate, founded in 1866, and still a great two-year-old prize at Newmarket, unintentionally perpetuates associations of the Turf and thoroughbred horses of an almost forgotten age !

Book L] THE TOWN AND THE HEATH. 33

Henry VII. the exportation of horses and mares beyond the seas was prohibited, presumably because all the best, for which the country was celebrated, had been sent abroad, and none but inferior breeds left behind. Henry VIII. likewise prohibited the exportation of horses to foreign parts beyond the seas (Calais, of course, being excepted), as also to Scotland — selling a horse to a Scotchman without the king's license being felony to buyer and seller. A few years later, by the statute of 27 Hen. VIII., c. 6 — which recites the case of decay in English horses — owners and farmers of parks, etc., should keep brood mares not less than thirteen hands high, on penalty of Aps. per month ; and four mares should be kept on every park of four miles in extent, under like penalty. By a somewhat later statute it was enacted that no stoned horses under fifteen hands high shall be put to pasture in any forest, etc., within certain counties specified ; nor under fourteen hands high in other counties, on penalty of forfeiture thereof. Next, by the 33 Henry VIII., c. 5, archbishops and dukes had to maintain seven stoned trotting horses for the saddle ; marquises, earls, and bishops, five ditto ; viscounts, barons, etc., having incomes to the value of 1000 marks, three ditto ; others with incomes of 500 marks, two ditto ; and those in receipt of ^100 a year, " whose wife shall wear any gown of silk, or any French hood or bonnet of velvet, with any habili- ment, paste, or 0:%^ of gold, pearl, or stone, or any chain of gold about their necks, or in their partlets, or in any apparel of their body," one ditto, under penalty, etc., etc. Many of these acts were renewed and extended under Edw. VI., Philip and Mary, and Elizabeth.

Although there is no authority for the assumption, it is nevertheless possible that the match between the Earl of Arundel and Richard II. may have been contested on Newmarket Heath. The locality had long been famous for exhibitions of equestrian art. Thus in 1309, Edward 11. interdicted a tournament which was to be held there on the Feast of St. George.

VOL. I. D

34 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

A similar event was prohibited in 131 3, when the king warned his nobles generally, and seven of them by name, not to attend the tournament at " Novum Mercatum," on the 17th of January of that year. Among those " named " were the Earl of Pembroke,* the Earl of Gloucester and Hertford,^ the Earl of Surrey,^ Paganus de Tybotot, William de Latimer, and Bartholomew de Badelesmere.*

Holinshed, in referring to the great floods and inundations which happened in England in 1393, says that at Newmarket the deluge knocked down the walls of houses and brought men and women in great danger of drowning.^

Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI., was at Newmarket early in the year 1453, when she gave two men, whose stable was burnt down, £1-^ 6^-. 8«f.J

In those days the road towards Newmarket was well known to the pilgrims to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.§

The town of Newmarket is divided into two parishes, All Saints' and St. Mary's, the former being in Chiveley hundred, Cambridgeshire, and the latter in Lackford hundred, Suffolk, the High street dividing the two counties. It is

* Reymer's " Foedera " and " Calendar of Patent Rolls."

t Mr. H. T. Riley, editor of Walsingham's "Ypodigma Neustris " (p. 365), with reference to the " great inundations at Bury and Newmarket " in 1393, gives the following reading of the text : " Aquarum inundatio apud Bury tanta ruit, ut aream adimpleret ecclesice, et apud Novum Forum parietes domorum dirueret, et viris illic, ac mulieribus, pene periculum dimersionis inferret, in Octobrio."

X Strickland, " Lives of the Queens of England," vol. ii., p. 209.

§ The stages between London and Walsingham used to be as follows : — From London to Ware, 20 miles ; to Newmarket, 34 miles ; to Brandon Ferry, 10 miles ; to Dickham, 10 miles ; and thence to Walsingham, 12 miles. Total 86 miles.

Book I.] THE EARL OF PEMBROKE. 35

distant sixty miles from London, and thirteen east from Cambridge, and is in the rural deanery of Fordham, arch- deaconry of Sudbury, and diocese of Ely. Under the new Redistribution of Seats Act, the Newmarket division of Cambridgeshire is entitled to return one member of Parliament.

*Adomarus de Valentia, Comes Pembrochiae, as he is called in the royal mandamus, was Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl OF Pembroke, third son and successor of William de Luzignan, otherwise De Valence, Earl of Pembroke, killed in battle in France, A.D. 1296. Aymer, the 2nd Earl, was in the wars of Scotland, temp. Edward I., and obtained consider- able grants from the crown in that kingdom. Being with the king at Burgh-upon-the-Sands, immediately before the death of Edward I., he was one of those to whom the king recom- mended his son, and enjoined him not to suffer Piers de Gaveston to come into England again, for which he was ever after much hated by Piers, " being called by him ' Joseph the Jew,' in regard he was tall and pale of counte- nance." He subsequently joined the coalition against the power of Gaveston, and assisted at the siege of Scarborough Castle, in which, upon its surrender, the favourite was made prisoner, and was soon after beheaded, by order of the Earl of Warwick, at Blackburn Hill, near Warwick. In the 8th Edward H., the Earl of Pembroke was constituted general of all the king's forces, from the river Trent, northwards, to Roxborough, and he obtained license to make a castle of his house at Bampton, in Oxfordshire. Two years later he was again in the Scottish wars, but being made prisoner in his journey towards the court of Rome, by John Moilley, a Burgundian, and sent to the emperor, he was constrained to give twenty thousand pounds of silver for his ransom ; by reason, Moilley alleged, that he himself, having served the king of England, had not been paid his wages. After obtaining his liberty, his lordship returned to the wars in Scotland, and for several subsequent years was engaged in that kingdom. In the 15th Edward II. he was one of the

36 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

lords who sat in judgment upon Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, and condemned that Prince to death : " but this mercenary and time-serving act of infamy," it is said, was speedily atoned for by his own death, which occurred in two years after in France, where, attending Queen Isabel, he was murdered, June 27, 1323. He married ist, Beatrix, daughter of Ralph de Claremont, Seigneur de Nele, Constable of France ; 2ndly, a daughter of Count de Barre ; and 3rdly, Mary (who was great-granddaughter, maternally, of King Henry HI. She founded, by grant from her cousin, Edward III., the college of Mary de Valence, in Cambridge, now called Pembroke Hall), daughter of Guy de Chastillion, Comte de St. Paul, but had no issue. His remains were conveyed to England, and buried in Westminster Abbey. On the earl's decease, his estates passed to his sisters as co-heirs, and the Earldom of Pembroke became extinct.

^ Gilbertus de Clare, Comes Gloucestriae et Hertfordiae — eldest son of Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, 7th Earl OF Hertford and 3rd Earl of Gloucester, and Alice, daughter of Guy, Earl of Angoulesme, and niece of the King of France — succeeded his father in 1295. He married Maud, daughter of Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster. Like the celebrated Sir Giles Argentine, of Newmarket, he was killed at the battle of Bannockburn, June 24, 13 14; and leaving no issue, his large possessions devolved upon his three sisters, his co-heiresses, and the Earldom of Gloucester and Hertford became extinct.

^ Johannes de Warenna, Comes Surriai, posthumous son of William de Warren (eldest son of John de Warren [Plan- tagenet], Earl of Warren and Surrey) and Joane, daughter of Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford. His father was killed in a tournament at Croydon, December 12, 1285. On the death of his grandfather, in 1304, this Earl of Surrey, named in the royal mandamus prohibiting the tournament at Newmarket, succeeded to the honours and estates of his ancestors. He had the honour of knighthood conferred upon

Book 1.] THE EARL OF SURREY. 37

him, with two hundred other persons of distinction, in the 34th Edward I., when Prince Edward was also knighted with great solemnity. In the last year of Edward I. his lordship was in the expedition made into Scotland, wherein that victorious prince died. In the 4th of the next reign, he was again in Scotland, and so much in favour with Edward II. that he obtained a free grant of the castle and honour of Peke, in Derbyshire, with the whole forest of High Peke, to hold during his life, in as full and ample manner as William Peverel anciently enjoyed the same, before it came to the kings of England by escheat. In the ensuing year we find the Earl of Surrey, along with the Earl of Pembroke, besieging Piers Gaveston, in Scarborough Castle, and forcing him to surrender. He was, some years afterwards, one of those who invested the castle of Pontefract, at that time held by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and his adherents ; and he subsequently sat in judgment upon that eminent personage. In the reign of Edward III. the earl appears constantly engaged in the wars of Scotland. He married ist, Joane, daughter of Count de Barre, by whom he had no issue. In the lifetime of this lady he cohabited publicly with Maud de Nereford, a person of good family in Norfolk, but was at length obliged, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to break off the connection. He obtained a divorce, however, from his countess, on the ground of a pre-contract with this Maud. He married, subsequently, Johanna, eldest daughter and heir of Malise, 7th Earl of Strathern, in Scotland, and had a grant of that earldom from Edward Baliol. His wife was forfeited by Robert Bruce, for marrying the Earl of Surrey. He died June 30, 1347, aged sixty-one, when, as he left no legitimate issue, his sister Alice, wife of Edmund Fitz-Alan, 8th Earl of Arundel, became his heir, and conveyed the great estates of the Warrens (Plantagenets) to the Fitz-Alan family. Her ladyship's son, Richard Fitz-Alan, 9th Earl of Arundel, is considered to have succeeded to the Earldom of Surrey, and so styled himself; but it is doubtful if he were ever formally invested with that dignity. He died in 1375, and was succeeded by his son and heir, Richard Fitz-Alan, Earl

38 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book T.

of Arundel and Surrey, who was beheaded in 1397, when all his honours became forfeited.

We can find no reliable trace of the three other gentlemen mentioned in the royal mandamus prohibiting the holding of this Newmarket meeting.

As to the local and manorial history of the town and the vicinity of Newmarket, the Rev. Dr. Dibden, writing in 1832, says that in 1227, a contagion or plague having broken out at Exning, its ma^'ket was removed to the adjoining village, and hence the origin of the appellation New-market. He, unfortunately, gives no authority for that assertion (which we are unable to substantiate) ; nevertheless, we are in duty- bound to pay the highest respect to any statement emanating from the erudite author of the Bibliograph- ical Decameron. The earliest contemporary allusion to Newmarket is in the grant of Henry III. to Richard de Argentine, dated February 17, 1226-7, of which the following is a literal translation : —

" For Richard de Argent.' Henry the King, etc., greeting. Know ye that we have granted and by this our present charter have confirmed to our beloved and faithful Richard de Argent' and his heirs that the Sheriff of Suffolk every year for ever should come once to his manor of Newmarket to make view of frank- pledge in his court of the same town of his men in that manor. We have granted also to the said Richard and his heirs the amercements if there be any from the aforesaid view of frank-pledge. So that the said Sheriff of Suffolk should not take nor have anything from those amercements. We have granted also to the said Richard and his heirs for ever that they should have

Book I.] MANORIAL GRANTS. 39

every week a market on Tuesday at his manor of Halesworth' and that they should have every year at his aforesaid manor of Newmarket a fair to last for three days namely on the vigil of the Apostles Simon and Jude and on the day and on the morrow with all liberties and free customs to such market and fair belonging. So that the aforesaid market and fair be not to the injury of the neighbouring markets and fairs. Wherefore we will and firmly command that the afore- said Sheriff of Suffolk every year for ever should come once to the aforesaid manor of Newmarket to make view of frank-pledge in the court of the said Richard and of his heirs of the said town of his men remainingr in that manor, that the amercements forthcoming from that view of frank-pledge should belong to the said Richard and his heirs. So that the said Sheriff should not take nor have anything from those amercements and that the said Richard and his heirs should have every week a market at his Manor of Halesworth' on Tuesday and every year a fair at his manor of New- market to last for three days with all liberties and free customs and acquittances to such market and fair belonging as is aforesaid. These being witnesses E. of London, J. of Bath, P. of Winchester, R. of Sarum, Bishops, H. de Burg' Earl of Kent our Justiciar, W. earl of Albemarle, W. de Eynef our steward, H. de Capella and others. Given by our hand &c. at West- minster the 1 7th day of February in the year &c. the 1 ith." — Charter Roll, 11 Henry HI., part i., mem. 26., No. 18. MS. Public Record Office.

In a Close Roll of 11 Henry HI., dated at Bur-

40 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

well, April 21, 1227 (where the king was then present), a slight difference will be observed —

f Rico de Argentoein. D'n's Rex concessit Rico de Argen- toein q'd feria qua consuevit hire ap maneriu suu de Novo M'cato vigil' 't die't 1 c'^stino Sci Egidii usq' ad etate diii R. vigil' 't die'' 1 c"stino Aplo^" Simois 't Jude, nisi 'tg. Et mand' est Vic Suff q'd feria ilia clamari 't ten'i faciat sic predcm est. T.R.ap BurewelI,*xxj.dieAp'l. — Rot.Litt. Clans. ,No\.\\.,'^. io6a.

In 1293 Reginald de Argentine, ist Baron de Argentine obtained the confirmation of the grant made by Henry III. to his predecessor in the year 1227 : —

" For Reginald de Argentem. The King to the Archbishops etc. greeting. Know ye that we have granted and by this our charter have confirmed to our beloved and faithful Reginald de Argentem that he and his heirs for ever may have a fair at his manor of Newmarket in the county of Suffolk every year to last for eight days namely on the supervigil and on the vigil and on the day and on the morrow of St. Bar- nabas the apostle and during the four days following. And a fair at his manor of Haleswarth' in the county

* Burwell lies about four miles north-west of Newmarket. Burwell Castle, of which some vestiges remain, was besieged in the reign of King Stephen by Gefifory de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, who lost his life by a wound from an arrow before its walls. The manor of Tiptofts, in this parish, takes its name from the baronial family of Tiptoft, who possessed it in the year 1277, before which time it belonged to the family of Camois. John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, died seised of this and other manors in the neighbourhood, in 1470. From the Earl of Worcester, these estates passed by descent to Sir Thomas Lovell, ^emp. Queen Elizabeth. In 1632 the property was held by the Marche family ; and about the begin- ning of the present century it belonged to the Earl of Aylesford, whose father acquired it by marriage with the younger daughter of Charles, Duke of Somerset. A memorable and most melancholy incident happened at Burwell in the year 1727, when seventy-nine persons, being spectators at a puppet-show, exhibited in a barn, lost their lives in consequence of a fire which destroyed the building, when the audience were burnt to death.

Book I.]

THE FAIRS.

41

aforesaid every year to last for four days namely on the vigil and on the day and on the morrow of St. Luke the Evangelist and during one day following. Unless those fairs be to the injury of the neighbouring fairs. Wherefor we will and firmly command for us and our heirs that the aforesaid Reginald and his heirs for ever may have the aforesaid fairs at their manors aforesaid with all liberties and free customs to such fairs belonging. Unless those fairs be to the injury of the neighbouring fairs as is aforesaid. These being witnesses the venerable fathers J. Archbishop of Dublin, J. of Winchester, A. of Durham and W. of Ely, Bishops, Edmund our brother, Edmund Earl of Cornwall our kinsman, John de Warren Earl of Surrey, Reginald de Grey, John de St. John, Walter de Bello Campo, Richard de Bosco and others. Given by the king's hand at Westminster the 27th day of June. By the King himself, Hugh de Veer informing him." — Charter Roll, 21 Edward I., mem. 2, No. 10. MS. P.R.O.

Before proceeding further we will now give a brief biographical account of the lords of the manor of Newmarket.

The earliest documentary reference to the Argentine family in the county of Suffolk occurs in the 5th year of Stephen, A.D. 1140, when Maud, widow of Reginald de Argentine, obtained licence from the king to marr>' again, she having to pay that monarch a com- position for her dowry.

This Reginald was succeeded by another Reginald de Argentine, sheriff of the counties of Cambridee

and Huntingdon,

42 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

from the fifth to the eighth years of Richard I. (a.d. 1193 — 1 197), and in the next year for the counties of Hertford and Essex, for one half-year only. Adhering to the patriotic barons, he obtained, in 12 15, letters of safe-conduct during his mission to King John, to treat of peace on behalf of the barons, but nothing came of this negociation, although it eventually resulted in the consummation of Magna Charta. In consequence of the part Reginald de Argentine took in this rebellion his lands were seized by the king, but soon after Henry HI.'s accession (A.D. 12 16), compounding for his estates, command was given to the sheriff of Cambridgeshire to give him possession of all his lands in that county, which had been sequestrated during the first of the baron's wars. He died about the year 1223, and was succeeded by RICHARD DE Argentine, who acquired the manor of Newmarket by his marriage with Cassandra, daughter of Robert de L'Isle. In the 8th Henry III. (a.d. 1223), he, being sheriff of the counties of Essex and Hertford, was constituted governor of the castle of Hertford. He was likewise sheriff of the coun- ties of Cambridge and Huntingdon, and subsequently, in the nth Henry III., one of the stewards of the king's household, at which time he obtained the grant of the fair for his manor of Newmarket. Three years after this, Richard, " being a valliant knight and valliant in arms," went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and dying there in the year 1246, was succeeded by his son and heir,

Giles de Argentine, a knight also of great valour, who in the i6th Henry III. (a.d. 1231), being with the king in an expedition made that year into Wales, fell into the hands of the enemy in a sharp conflict near Montgomery. Ten years afterwards he was summoned " with other great men of the time," to attend the king with horse and arms into Gascony, and the following year he was appointed governor of Windsor Castle ; but soon after, being dissatisfied with the injurious rule of the king's favourites, he joined the patriotic barons under Simon de Montfort * (a patron saint of the chase in

* It is a popular error to call St. Hubert the patron saint of the chase, at least so far as relates to our island. No doubt Hubert was considered

Book I.] THE LORDS OF THE MANOR. 43

England), at the battle of Lewes, May 14, 1264, and having defeated the royalists and taken the king prisoner, he was elected by them one of the nine counsellors to assume the government of the kingdom. The barons being, however, defeated at the subsequent battle of Evesham, August 4,

as such in his native country ; but St. Denis and some others were also looked upon, and interceded to, by sportsmen in a Hke capacity. In England, before the Norman Conquest, several Anglo-Saxon saints were worshipped and supplicated by sportsmen in those days, when their intercession was deemed necessary for the due success of any venatic undertaking. But as these local patron saints of the chase in course of time became unfashionable, or forgotten, or supplanted by others, as the case may be, we will not further refer to them, but mention a few of their successors in more recent times. Thomas a Becket (who was a mighty hunter in his lifetime) was undoubtedly looked upon by our sporting pre- decessors during the Plantagenet era as the patron saint of the chase /«r excellence. If any one had a sick hawk or hound which did not recover under ordinary human remedies, he forthwith made a wax model of the animal, and despatched it to the shrine of the saint at Canterbury, where it was solemnly offered, the result, of course, being a miraculous cure. This procedure became so common and necessary, that we find an officer attached to the royal hunting establishment in those days, whose principal duty it was to attend to such matters. Sometimes the wax model was sent to the shrine of St. Thomas of Hereford, who was also a patron saint of the chase. Perhaps the most extraordinary- of all was Simon de Mont- fort, the celebrated Earl of Leicester, who, although not canonized, was looked upon as a saint from the time of Edward I. until about the accession of Richard II., when, for some reason or other, he became unfashionable with English sportsmen, and ceased to be supplicated. Nevertheless, he was once in great favour with sportsmen, and a list of the miracles accomplished by his intercession on hawks, hounds, horses, etc., is pre- served in the Cottonian MS. in the British Museum — the cures effected being vouched for by numerous witnesses of undoubted veracity. Apart from the supernatural attributes of the patron saint of the chase, we may mention, in conclusion, that Simon de Montfort was famous as a hunts- man. So devoted was he to the pleasures of the chase, that his seal depicts him mounted on his hunter in full gallop, winding his horn, cheer- ing on his foxhounds, which are represented in full crj'. This seal of the great patriotic baron is attached to a deed dated 1259, preserved in the royal archives at Paris. The example we believe to be unique, as in those days it was the custom of knights and nobles, kings and princes, to be represented on their seals armed cap-a-pie. But " the founder of the House of Commons," as he is sometimes termed, preferred to appear on his seal in the costume of Diana rather than the uniform of Mars ; and, as he was the M.F.H. of Warwickshire and Leicestershire over six hundred years ago, the seal gives us, in miniature, the oldest picture of foxhunting in England now extant.

44 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

1265, Argentine's lands, and those of his son Reginald, " who had the honour of assisting in that insurrection," were seques- trated. This Sir Giles married Margaret, daughter and co-heir of Sir Robert de Aiguillon, Knight, and died in 1283, pos- sessed of the manor of Great Wymondeley, Cambridgeshire, which he held by grand serjeantry, viz. "to serve the king upon the day of his coronation with a silver cup."

His son and successor REGINALD DE Argentine, ist Baron de Argentine, who, doing homage, had livery of all his father's lands in the counties of Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Hertford. In 1293 he obtained the confirmation of the charter granted to Sir Richard de Argentine in 1227 for a fair yearly " on the eve, the day, and the morrow after the Feast of St. Barnabas the apostle, and four days ensuing, at his manor of Newmarket, in the county of Suffolk," etc. He was summoned to Parliament in the 25th Edward I. (January 26, 1297). He married Lora, daughter of Hugh de Vere, 4th Earl of Oxford, and, dying in 1307, was succeeded by his son.

Sir John de Argentine, 2nd baron, who had livery of his father's lands, but was never summoned to Parliament. He married, ist, Joane, daughter and heir of Sir Roger Bryan, and had issue, Joane, who married Sir John le Boteler,* and was

* The Butler family formerly held a moiety of this manor. Davy gives the following list of those lords : — 33 Edward III., A.D. 1359 . . . Botiller : Hawise, widow of Ralph Botiler, for life, ob. 35 Edward III., A.D. 1361 : Sir Edward Boteler, Knt., ob. 14 Henry IV. In the Inquisition, taken at the death of this knight, it is recorded that he was seised of the moiety of the manor of Exning and Newmarket, called Botiler's Manor, and the moiety of one market, held on Tuesday every week, extending into Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and the moiety of view of frank pledge held on the Feast of St. Peter de Vincula ; the moiety of two general courts to be held within a month of Easter and Michaelmas ; the moiety of the profits of the fair held, on St. Barnabas' Day, and that Philip Botiler was his cousin and next heir, i.e. son of Philip, son of Ralph, brother of John, father of the said Edward, age 24. 14 Henry IV. A.D. 1412, Philip Botelier (above): Anthony Botyller ... 11 Henry VIII., a.d. 15 19, Emma, his widow, remarried to Christopher Sandford, Esq. : 22 Henry VIII., A.D. 1530, Sir Philip Butler, Knt., and Elizabeth his wife: 11 Elizabeth, A.D. 1569, William Alington, Esq., who released all his right to Sir Giles Alington, Knt., ob. 1586 : 28 Ehzabeth, 1586, Sir Giles Alington, Knt., grandson and heir, ob. 1638.

Book L] THE ARGENTINES. 45

mother of Sir Edward Boteler ; Elizabeth, who married Sir WilHam le Botiller, brother of Sir John ; and Dionysia, co-heir of her mother. He married, 2ndly, Agnes, daughter and co-heir of WilHam Hereford, of Burton, and, dying in 13 18, was succeeded by his son, then but six months old.

Sir John de Argentine, 3rd baron, who was knighted in 1 33 1, but was never summoned to Parliament. He married Margaret, daughter and heir of Robert DArcy, of Stretton, and by her had issue, Maud, married to Sir Eudo or Ivo Fitz Warren ; Joane, married to Sir Bartholomew Naunton ; Elizabeth, married to Sir Baldwin St. George, Knt, who was ancestor of the St. Georges of Hatley St. George, Cam- bridgeshire. This John Lord de Argentine died prior to March 25th, in the year 1383, without legitimate male issue, when the barony fell into abeyance amongst his daughters and co-heirs.

Sir William Argentine (ob. 14 18), illegitimate son of the last Lord Argentine, was given the manor of Wymondeley. He married Isabel, daughter of Sir William Kerdeston, by whom he left an only son,

John de Argentine, at whose decease, in 1423, the manor of Wymondeley was carried by his daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, upon her marriage with William Alington, Esquire, ancestor of the Lords Alington, This manor of Wimley, or Wymondeley, is said to have fallen to the Argen- tines by marriage with the heiress of Fitz Tees, who derived themselves from David DArgenton, a Norman, who came over with William the Conqueror. We must not omit to mention two other distinguished members of this family. In the year 1237, REGINALD DE ARGENTINE, a knight-templar, was standard-bearer of the Christian army in the great battle against the Turks, near Antioch, in the Holy Land, and carried it till, his hands and legs being broken, he was there slain.

Equally glorious was the end of SiR GiLES ARGENTINE,

" Of chivalry the flower and pride,"

at the battle of Bannockburn, June 24th, 13 14. Having per- suaded Edward II, to retreat when the issue of the day was

46 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

hopeless, and having seen the king out of danger, he bade him farewell, and, turning his horse, rode back to the enemy, shouting that he was not used to fly, charged into the thick of the fight, and soon met that death which he sought.

Sir Walter Scott gives the following poetic picture of the defeat of Edward II., and the fate of Argentine : —

Already scatter'd o'er the plain, Reproof, command, and counsel vain, The rearward squadrons fled amain,

Or made but doubtful stay ; — But when they mark'd the seeming show Of fresh and fierce and marshall'd foe,

The boldest broke array.

0 give their hapless prince his due ! In vain the royal Edward threw

His person 'mid the spears. Cried, " Fight ! " to terror and despair, Menaced, and wept, and tore his hair,

And cursed their caitiff fears ; Till Pembroke turn'd his bridle rein. And forced him from the fatal plain. With them rode Argentine, until They gain'd the summit of the hill,

But quitted there the train : — " In yonder field a gage I left —

1 must not live of fame bereft ;

I needs must turn again. Speeds hence, my Liege, for on your trace The fiery Douglas takes the chase.

I know his banner well. God send my Sovereign joy and bliss. And many a happier field than this ! —

Once more, my Liege, farewell."

Again he faced the battle-field,—

Wildly they fly, are slain, or yield,

" Now then," he said, and couch'd his spear,

" My course is run, the goal is near :

One effort more, one brave career,

Must close this race of mine." Then in his stirrups rising high, He shouted loud his battle-cry,

" Saint James for Argentine ! " And, of the bold pursuers, four The gallant knight from saddle bore ;

Book I.] THE ARGENTINES. 47

But not unharm'd — a lance's point

Has found his breastplate's loosen'd joint,

An axe has razed his crest ; Yet still on Colonsay's fierce lord, Who press'd the chase with gory sword.

He rode with spear in rest, And through his bloody tartans bored,

And through his gallant breast. Nail'd to the earth, the mountaineer Yet writhed him up against the spear,

And swung his broadsword round ! — Stirrup, steel-boot, and cuish gave way. Beneath that blow's tremendous sway,

The blood gush'd from the wound ; And the grim Lord of Colonsay

Hath turn'd him on the ground. And laugh'd in death-pang, that his blade The mortal thrust so well repaid.

Now toil'd the Bruce, the battle done. To use his conquest boldly won ; And gave command for horse and spear To press the Southron's scatter'd rear. Nor let his broken force combine, — When the war-cry of Argentine

Fell faintly on his ear ; " Save, save his life," he cried, " O save The kind, the noble, and the brave ! " The squadrons round free passage gave,

The wounded knight drew near ; He raised his red cross * shield no more, Helm, cuish, and breastplate stream'd with gore, Yet, as he saw the king advance, He strove e'en then to couch his lance —

The effort was in vain ! The spur-stroke fail'd to rouse the horse ; Wounded and weary, in mid course He stumbled on the plain. Then foremost was the generous Bruce To raise his head, his helm to loose ; —

" Lord Earl, the day is thine !

" My Sovereign's charge, and adverse fate, Have made our meeting all too late ; Yet this may Argentine,

* This is obviously wrong. The Argentine arms were Gu.^ three covered cups. Arg.

48

THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET.

[Book T.

As boon from ancient comrade, crave — A Christian's mass, a soldier's grave." Bruce press'd his dying hand — its grasp Kindly replied : but, in his clasp,

It stiffen'd and grew cold — " And, O farewell ! " the victor cried, " Of chivalry the flower and pride.

The arm in battle bold, The courteous mien, the noble race, The stainless faith, the manly face ! — Bid Ninian's convent light their shrine, For late-wake of De Argentine. O'er better knight on death-bier laid, Torch never gleam'd nor mass was said."

The Alington family were lords of the manor of New- market, in Suffolk, after the Argentines, from the time of Edward IV. until the reign of George III., when the manor, with Cheveley and other property, went into the possession of the Manners, Dukes of Rutland.

The Alington family, like that of Argentine, also dates as far back as the Conquest, when SiR HiLDEBRAND DE Alington, Under Marshal of William I. at the battle of Hastings, had Alington Castle by gift of that king.

Sir Alan de Alington " was in great favour with William Rufus and a great devisor of building, and was thought to be the chief doer for the building of Westminster Hall, which then was Palatium Regium, and by King Henry I. converted to the use it now is, and much beautified by Edward III." His son.

Sir Solomon de Alington, Knight, " was in great authority in the reign of Henry I., and builded the Castle of Alington, where he erected one notable tower after his own name, called the ' Solomon's Tower.' " His descendant, Sir William Alington, Knight, Privy Councillor to King Henry VI., treasurer of Normandy in the time of

Book I.] THE ALINGTONS. 49

Henry V. and Henry VI., and also of Ireland, married Joane, daughter and heir of Sir Wm. Burgh, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench (2 Richard II. A.D. 1378), and had a son,

William Alington, of Horseheath,* in Cambridgeshire, sheriff of Cambridge and Huntingdon in the year 1437, whose eldest son, William Alington, Esq., married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of John de Argentine, and acquired with her the manor of Wymondley, in the county of Hert- ford, held in grand sergeanty, by service of presenting the first cup at the coronation of the kings of England, which service was claimed and allowed at the coronation of King James II., and has, until recent times, been performed by the lords of that manor. By this alliance he also obtained the manor of Newmarket in Suffolk, which remained apparently in the family until about the middle of the eighteenth century, when the estate passed to the Dukes of Rutland by the marriage of Frances, eldest daughter of Charles, 6th Duke of Somerset, in 1750, with John, Marquis of Granby. She died in 1760.! From William Alington and Elizabeth his wife was derived SiR GiLES ALINGTON, who married Mary, only daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Gardiner, Knight, who had several children, of whom three of the younger sons, George, John, and Richard, were the founders of families ; George Alington, the second son, being the direct ancestor of the Alingtons of Swinhope, county Lincoln, whose present

* Horseheath was held by petit-sergeanty under the Earls of Oxford by the service of holding the earl's stirrup, whenever he should mount his horse in the presence of the holder of the manor.

t In Davy's list of the lords of this manor he places : — William Aling- ton, Esq., son and heir of John Ahngton, ob. 20 Edward IV., A.D. 1480. Sir Giles Alington, Knt., son and heir. WiHiani Alyngton, Gent., released it to Sir Giles Alington, Knt., son and heir of Sir Giles, ob. 1 1 Elizabeth, A.D. 1569. Sir Giles Alington, Knt., grandson and heir, ob. 28 Elizabeth, A.D. 1586. In 1717, Hildebrand Alington, Esq., presented to the living. Charles, 6th Duke of Somerset, ob. 1750, and gave it to Frances, his eldest daughter, who married John, Marquis of Granby. She died 1760. Charles, Duke of Rutland, son and heir, ob. 1787. John Henry, Duke of Rutland, son and heir.

VOL. I. E

so THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

representative, George Marmaduke AHngton, Esq., of Swin- hope, is also male representative of the old Lords Alington. Sir Giles was succeeded by his eldest son,

Sir Giles Alington, of Horseheath, High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire in 1530-31, and of Huntingdon in 1545-46. He appears to have attended Henry VHI. as Master of the Ordnance at the siege of Boulogne, by the inscription of a clock which he brought from that siege, and affixed over the offices at Horseheath Hall, in which was the alarm bell of the garrison of Boulogne.

This Sir Giles sumptuously entertained Queen Elizabeth at Horseheath, during her progress from London to Norwich, in the year 1578. He died in 1586, outliving his son Robert and grandson Giles.

Giles Alington, son of the last-mentioned Giles, suc- ceeded his great-grandfather, and was knighted by James I., at the Charter-house, London, May 11, 1603. By Dorothy, his wife, daughter of Thomas Cecil, Earl of Leicester, he had issue Thomas, Giles, James, and William, and six daughters.

Sir Giles Alington, his second, and eldest surviving, son, succeeded him in 1638. He married " a half-sister of one of his nieces (the daughter of his sister, Mrs. Dalton)," for which breach of the forbidden degrees of consanguinity he was fined, in the Star Chamber, ;^ 12,000, his issue declared illegitimate, and he was condemned to do penance at St. Paul's Cross, London, and in St. Mary's church at Cambridge, in 1 63 1 ; the same punishment being inflicted on the lady, who died of the small-pox in 1644.* Sir Edward Peyton asserts

* The Rev. Joseph Mead, writing from Christ Church College, Cambridge, to Sir Martin Stuteville, May 20, 1631, says: "Sir Giles Alington being stripped of all protection of the Common Law, by eight bishops and four of the other Commissioners [of the Court of High Commission, anglice ' The Old Powdering Tub '] was fined to the King ^12,000; bound in a bond of ^20,000 never to cohabit or come in her private company more ; to be committed to prison, or to put in sufficient bail till both of them have undergone the censure of the court, which enjoins them to do penance both at St. Paul's Cross and at Great St. Mary's, in Cambridge. Besides his father-in-law and brother-in-law, Mr. Dalton was fined ^2000 for having procured the licence, and hardly

Book I.] THE ALINGTONS. 51

that the fine imposed upon Sir Giles in the Star Chamber was shared between Queen Henrietta Maria and the Earl of Holland. In consequence of the issue of this marriage having been bastardized, the estates came to Sir Giles's only surviving brother,

William Alington, Esq., who was elevated to the peerage of Ireland, as Baron Alington of Killard, July 28, 1642.* His lordship married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Natheniel ToUemache, Bart, of Helingham, by whom he had five sons and three daughters, of whom Elizabeth, the eldest, married Charles Seymour, 2nd Lord Tronbridge, and had surviving issue Francis and Charles, successively Dukes of Somerset. It was partly through this alliance, and partly by purchase, that the manor of Newmarket eventually passed to the Seymours, and again, from that family, by marriage, to the Manners, Dukes of Rutland.

Lord Alington was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, William Alington, 2nd Baron, who was created a peer of

escaped the point of perjury. The eight Bishops were — my Lord's Grace of Canterbury [Dr. Abbot] ; the Bishops of London [Dr. Laud] ; of Winchester [Dr. Neile] ; of Norwich [Dr. White] ; of Coventry and Lichfield [Dr. Morton] ; of Bangor [Dr. David Dolben] ; of Rochester [Dr. John Bowie] ; and of Gloucester [Dr. Goodman]. It was the solemnest, the gravest, and severest censure that ever, they say, was miade in that Court. All the bishops made speeches, and all very good ones, many excellent and learned, wherin the Bishop of London bore the bell from them all, demonstrating the foulness and heinousness of the crime."

* This Lord Alington, who was appointed Constable of the Tower, during pleasure, with a salary of ^looo a year, payable quarterly, by patent dated Westminster, April 24, 1672, built a magnificent mansion at Horseheath, after the design of Webb, in 1665, at an expense of ^70,000. This estate was sold with the house, about the year 1687, for only ^42,000, to John Bromley, Esq., who expended ;^3o,ooo more in building, and died in 1707. His grandson was, in 1741, created Lord Montfort of Horse- heath. Thomas, the second Lord Montfort, having involved himself in embarrassments, was obliged to sell this estate in 1776, when the splendid mansion, on which such large sums of money had been expended, was sold for the materials : it had been stripped of its furniture the preceding year, and several valuable portraits by Walker, Lely, Sir Godfrey Kncllcr, and other masters of the early English school, were removed.

52 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

England, December 5, 1682, by the title of Baron Alington of Wymondley, in the county of Herts. By his third wife, Diana, daughter of William Russell, ist Duke of Bedford, he had one surviving son, Giles, and two daughters, Diana and Catherine ; the former married Sir George Warburton, Bart, of Arley, Cheshire, and died in 1705, leaving an only daughter, Diana, who married Sir Richard Grosvenor, Bart., of Eaton, Cheshire, but had no issue. Sir Richard, who had acquired a third part of the Alington estates in Hertfordshire with his wife, purchased the remainder, and thus became possessed of the entire manor of Wymondley, which entitled him to present the first cup of silver filled with wine at the coronations of George H. and George HI.* the said cups being retained by him as his fee. His lordship died in 1684, and was succeeded by his son,

Giles Alington, 3rd Baron of the Irish creation and 2nd of the English ; but, dying in 1691, the English peerage expired, while that of Ireland reverted to his uncle, the Hon. Hildebrand Alington, son of the ist Lord, as 4th Baron, who died, s. />., in 1722, when the Irish barony of Alington of Killard became extinct.

The Hon. Catherine Alington, sister and co-heiress of Giles, 3rd Lord Alington, married Sir Nathaniel Napier, Bart, of More Crichel, M.P. for Dorsetshire, temp. William HI. and Anne, and after her death, her daughter Diana became eventually sole heiress of the Napiers and Alingtons. She married Humphrey Sturt, Esq., of Horton, county Dorset, whose descendant, Henry Gerard Sturt, Esq., M.P., was raised to the peerage as Baron Alington of Crichel, county Dorset, January 15, 1876.

An inquisition took place in New^market in the

* " At the coronation of George IV., the late William Wiltshire, Esq., uncle to the present lord of the manor, claimed and was allowed the right of presenting the first cup, and afterwards retaining it for his fee. At the coronation of William IV., and of her present Majesty, the ancient ceremonies of the State Banquet were dispensed with ; hence the lord of the manor has been deprived of two handsome silver-gilt cups." — Cussans, Hist. Herts, vol. ii., p. 51, note.

Book I.] THE MANORS. 53

reign of Edward I., from which we learn that the prior of Fordham had view of frank- pledge, assise of bread and ale, and five tenants in the town, whereby the king lost 3^/. war-penny. The jury also found that a robber came into Newmarket and stole a horse worth 146-., whereupon Nicholas le Rees, the king's bailiff, came and took the man and the horse, both of which he detained in custody. It seems that during his captivity the thief stole the bailiff's purse and belt and escaped with the plunder. Subsequently the prior of Fordham claimed the horse as his property, and recovered the animal, while the thief escaped the clutches of the law. This trivial incident proves that horse-stealing (which flourished at Newmarket in later times) was an ancient calling.

In the reign of Edward III., by a similar inqui- sition, it transpired that certain persons held lands by the service of bringing footmen to serve the king in the Welsh wars, belonging to Norfolk and Suffolk, from the Ditch of St. Edmund [fossatode St. Edmiindi) without Newmarket, which is the only contempo- raneous instance we have met where the Devil's Ditch is so called.

Ancient records make mention of a manor here, which belonged to the priory of Fordham, in Cam- bridgeshire ; also the manor of Botelers, which be- longed to the family of that name.

In the 35th of King Edward III., Hawise, relict of Ralph Boteler, held for the term of her life the moiety of a messuage, forty acres of land, two of meadow, and 30^'. rent, with the appurtenances, in Newmarket and

54 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

Exning, of the king in capite, by service of one espear per annum.*

The manor of Wyke's Place belonged to the Slades ; and a manor which lay in this town was in possession of the prior and monks of Thetford. In 1406, William Knight sold to Edmund Eldehall, of Wood Ditton, Esq., and others, all his lands in Newmarket, laying in the manor of the prior of Thetford, called Monks Wyke, which lands, in 1412, were settled by the said Edmund, on the above prior.f

The alien priory of Neron and Newmarket leased out to farm during the war. 4 Henry VI., A.D. c. 1425. — Rot. Pari., vol. iv., 313 b.

The alien priory of Newmarket, late belonging to the abbey of St. Ebrolphis in Normandy, granted to the priory of Jesus of Bethlehem, Shene. 38 Henry VI., A.D. c. 1459. — lb., vol. v., p. 365 b.

Matthew Paris (who was a native of Cambridge- shire) mentions, that when Henry III. besieged and took Northampton, on Passion Sunday, 1264, among the distinguished knight bannerets taken prisoners was Adam de Newmarket, whom the king kept in strict custody. But whether this Adam belonged to our Eden is by no means certain.:]:

* Page, " Sussex Traveller." t Ibid.

X Close R. 13 H. 3, m. 13^/. Adam de Novo Mercato, Walter de Soureby, and William de Barton, appointed justices to hear the appeals of Jordan de Riton, John Fatuus, Godfrey de Pickering, and William de Savage, approvers in York jail.

18 Hen. 3. Close R., m. 27. John de Novo Mercato, official of the Archdeacon of Canterbury, commanded to cause to be restored to him the jewels which a certain chaplain stole from him in his pilgrimage to St. James, which chaplain the said official kept in prison.

19 Hen. 3. Close R., m. ^d. Adam de Newmarket and five others appointed to receive the aid granted to the king in the co. York.

Book I.] BISHOP MERKS. 55

Newmarket gave birth to Thomas Merks/ or Markes, who became Bishop of Carhsle. This notable native of Newmarket, in the dark ages, was famous for his steady adherence to Richard II. when that unfortunate royal turfite was bereft of friends and followers. Shakespeare introduces this distinguished ecclesiastic in his drama of Richard II., in Act III. scenes 2 and 3, and Act V. scenes i and 4, to which we beg to refer the reader, while we must confine our brief memoir and the "high sparks of honour" which proud Bolingbroke was constrained to admire in his " enemy," to more authentic historical authorities,

■^ Thomas Merks, fifteenth Bishop of Carlisle, was a monk of Westminster, and Master of Divinity. He had restitution of the temporalities of this see from King Richard II., and a provi- sion made to him by the Pope in the year 1397. In 1399, in the will of Richard II., Thomas, Bishop of Carlisle, is named as one of the five prelates whom that racing monarch joined with his nephew, the Duke of Surrey, and others of his royal relations, in the executorship, to each of whom he bequeathed a gold ring of the value of ^20. And he was the only bishop who took letters of protection from that king, subjecting himself thereby to personally attend his Majesty to Ireland in May, 1399: an unfortunate ex- pedition, as during his absence Bolingbroke arrived in England and usurped the throne. The latter having been crowned in the month of September, Henry IV. assembled his first Parliament at Westminster in the ensuing month (October), in which this distinguished and faithful native of Newmarket was the only one bold enough to say publicly what others silently thought, concerning the treatment which

Joan de Novo Mercato, widow of Adam de N. M., claims dowery of certain land, etc., in Venteleney. 18 Edward I., A.D. 1290. — Rot. Pari. V. I, 62a.

56 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I.

Richard II. had met with. To the astonishment of the Lancastrians, the bishop rose and demanded for Ricliard what ought not to be refused to tlie meanest criminal, the right of being confronted with liis accusers ; and for ParHament what it might justly claim, the opportunity of learning from the king's own mouth whether the resignation of the crown, which had been attributed to him, were his own spontaneous act. He urged everything that could with propriety be said in behalf of the deposed king and against the usurping Bolingbroke. But he stood alone ; no one was found to second his motion ; the House voted the deposition of Richard ; and eight commissioners ascending a tribunal erected before the throne, pronounced him degraded from the state and authority of king, on the ground that he notoriously deserved such punishment, and acknowledged it under his hand and seal on the preceding day. Sir William Thirnyng, Chief Justice, was appointed to notify the sentence to the royal captive, who meekly replied that he looked not after the royal authority, but hoped his cousin, Bolingbroke, would be a good lord to him. On the loth of January, 1 399-1400 following. Bishop Merks was committed for high treason and the new king (Henry IV.) gave particular direction to his judges with respect to their proceedings against bishops on such trials. He was soon after deprived of his bishopric. After having some time continued a prisoner in the Tower, Henry IV. consented to his removal, June 23, 1400, to Westminster Abbey. In the following years the king was still more compassionate towards him, and by his letters patent granted him licence to obtain from the Pope benefices (episcopal excepted) to the yearly amount of lOO marks. On the 13th of August, 1404, he was instituted to the rectory of Todenham, Gloucestershire; and we find that on January 13, 1409, Robert Ely was admitted to the said rectory, upon the death of Thomas Merks. Thus ended the career of the good prelate, with whom the town of Newmarket was more or less associated four hundred years ago.

Althoug-h there is no actual authority for the

Book I.] PROBABLE VISIT OF HENRY VII. 57

assumption, it may, however, be just within the bounds of probability, that Henry VII. paid a fleeting visit to Newmarket when he and his son, Prince Henry, were at Wilberton, where they were entertained by Arch- deacon Alcock, for several days, during the progress of the royal pilgrims to Ely, whither the king was then journeying, for the purpose of offering his devotions at the shrine of St. Etheldreda.

58 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

BOOK II.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII. TO THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH.

Henry VIII. and the Turf— His race-meetings at Eltham, Windsor, etc. — Other notable Turfites of the period — 'J'he King's trainer — Train- ing secrets — The jockeys — Their traveUing expenses — Wages and emoluments — Apparel : cap, jacket, hosen — The King's racing colours — More training secrets — Sir Thomas Cheyney — Lord Dacre of th( South — The Earl of Kildare — The Abbot of Glasto7ibiiry — Charles Brandon — Thoinas Brando7i^ Duke of Suffolk — Sir George Lawson — Sir Hejtry Morris, and other Turfites of the period — Chester — Rules and regulations for the races — The silver bell — Other sports during the meeting — The Rodee — Derivation of the name — The legend relating to it — Horse-racing in Yorkshire — Doncaster, Gaterly, Acomb Moor, Hambleton, York — Racing at Metz — Curious matches between Richard de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, and Seigneur Dex — A novel training secret — Incidents and results — Richard de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk — Presents of race-horses of the Mantua breed sent to Henry VIII. — Altabello and Governatore — Worth their weight in silver — Fame of the Mantua stud — Other foreign horses imported — The Royal stud at Eltham — Importation of Barbs in the reign of Edward VI. — Superiority and abundance of English horses at this period — Exportation of horses prohibited — Progress of the Turf in England and Scotland during the reign of Elizabeth — The Annals : — Croydon— Projected Royal visit to the races in 1574 — Does not take place — List of the Queen's guests— How accommodated at Croydon — Difficulty of obtaining lodgings there during the races — Royal visits in 1585, 1587, and 1588 — The royal stand — Its cost — Other expenses incident to the Queen's visits — Salisbury — The races instituted — The gold bell — Its value — Won by the Earl of Cumberland — Conditions of the race — The patrons of the meeting— Further particulars — The golden snaffle given by the

Book II.] HENRY VIII. 59

Earl of Essex — The gold bell given by the Earl of Pembroke — Memoirs of the Earls of Pembroke, Cumberland., Essex, Warwick, Lords Chandos, Thomas and Williain Howard j Sir Walter Hungerford, John Danvers, Thomas Wroughton, William Courte- nay, Mathew Artttidel, and other supporters of the meeting — Doncaster — The meeting established — The stand — Is ordered to be pulled down — The course on Wheatlay Moor — Huntingdon — The races " invented " — The first meeting — The silver bell — Won by Sir Oliver Cromwell — The race — Incidents — Sir Oliver Cromwell — Richmond (Yorkshire) — The first meeting in 1576 — The cup — CarHsle — The silver-gilt bell — Won by Sir William Dacre — De- scription of the prize — The Turf in Scotland — The Border meetings — Haddington — Peebles — Dumfries — Solway Sands — The fathers of the Turf in Scotland — Lord Hamilton — David Home — Teviotdale — Disturbance at the meeting— Racing in London — The metropolitan courses — Conjectures concerning other race-meetings — Popularity of rural sports in the Elizabethan era — Bishop Hall's comments on the Turf — Thoroughbred stallions fed on eggs and oysters — Lord Herbert's animadversions on racing — Allusions to the popularity and the iniquities of the Turf — Shakespeare's allusions to horse-racing — Markham's book on horses — His references to race-horses — Describes the Arabian — His rules for training race-horses — Food and exercising — How to finally prepare a horse for his race — Stable secrets — Going to the post — The last injunction — Che sara sara — Gervase Mark- ham — Horse-bread — How made — Statutes relating thereto — Queen Elizabeth's racing establishment — Her Barbary steeds — Number of race-horses in training — Her jockeys — Their wages and emoluments — The royal studs and stables — John Selwyn's equestrian feat — Holinshed's description of horses and horse-breeding in England at this period — Sir Nicholas Arnold's celebrated stud — Statutes relating to horse-breeding — How enforced — Newmarket : The town and its vicinity in the sixteenth century — Value of land and houses during this period — The popular inns— The last will and testament of Simon Folkes, junior — Malting — The taxes— Amounts paid by the inhabitants temps. Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Elizabeth— The names of the residents and the business pursued by them about this period — Value of church property in the town in the reign of Henry VIII. — Imprisonment of Queen Elizabeth, when Princess Royal, at Kirtling — Probability that she was a frequent visitor to Newmarket in those days.

In the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VIII. we find mention of various sums of money given in reward to servants or grooms by whom horses were brought to Eltham, Windsor, and elsewhere to com-

6o THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

pete on the race-course with those belonging to the king. From these trivial entries we incidentally ascer- tain that among the patrons of the turf at this date were Sir Thomas Cheyney,^ Lord Dacre of the SoutlV the Earl of Kildare,^° the Abbot of Glastonbury/^ the Duke of Suffolk/"' Sir George Lawson/^ Mr. Blount, Mr, Norrys/* etc. Powle, the king's trainer, is usually dubbed " keeper of the Barra or Barbary Horses ; " the term Barb being applied to race-horses in general, and euphonistically embracing all sorts of Eastern and native blood-stock employed at the stud and on the course.

Some curious items are mentioned in connection with the royal stud. Thus in April, 1532, Powle received 7^, 2d. for making a bath for one of the Arabian racers then in training at Windsor ; and several charges occur for medicine provided for those horses from time to time. In the spring of 1530, the king's watermen received 2\s. A^d. "for waiting" on the day the horses ran. The jockey, if he won, received 24^'. Zd., while Thomas Ogle, the " Gentleman Rider of the Stables," got a gratuity of 20^. by the king's special grace and favour,* Considerable trouble occurred in procuring boys for the purpose of riding the king's race-horses ; and the expenses of sending one from the borders of Scotland appear to have amounted to £^ 65. %d. In the spring of 1523, Lord Dacre of the North sent one of his jockeys to the king and received for his pains from the Privy Purse

* The annual wages of this functionary was ;^20, with free allowance of one hackney. The jockeys had is. a week and ^d a day board wages.

Book II.] THE KINGS RACING EXPENSES. 6i

^3 6s. %d., which appears to have been the usual allowance in such cases. In the race the jockeys wore distinguishing colours — caps, jackets and hosen, as at the present time.* In March, 1532, "the boye that Ranne the Barbary horse" received a reward of 185-. 4^., and the trainer obtained a similar gratuity from the kincr.

In a bundle of documents relating to the royal stud, at this date, a payment of 2d. is charged, on account of a black courser, " for all [oil] for ys legges when rened [for his legs when he ran] agaynst Mr. Karey's geldyng for a wager." f

^ Governor of Rochester Castle, and afterwards a Knight of the Garter, Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Treasurer of the Household to Edward VI. In the 12th Henry VI 1 1, he was one of the challengers against all gentlemen in feats of arms for thirty days at the "joyous and gentle " Field of Cloth of Gold. He was an expert horseman, and stood high in favour of the king, who visited his stud in Kent when on his road to Calais in 1532. Sir Thomas Cheyney died in 1559.

^ In contradistinction to Lord Dacre of the North. The above was Thomas Fines, who succeeded his grandfather

* " Item the vij daye in February [1530] paide to John Scot for iij doublets of Burges satin and for iij doublets of fustian with the making and the lynyng for the iij boys that runnes the gueldings . . . xxxviij s. vj d. Item the xxj daye paide to John Scot for making coats and doublets for the running boys of the stabul . . . xlix s. Item payde to X'pofer the mylanner for ij Ryding cappes of blac satin and lyned \vt blac vellute for the king's grace . . . xx sP Mr. H. Nicholas, F.S.A., by whom these Privy Purse expenses were edited, says : " Horses or geldings, particularly racing horses, and horses ' that did run,' as well as ' riding boys,' clothes bought for the boys ' that ride the running horses,' and riding caps for them, are constantly spoken of ; and dogs for the chase were a frequent, and doubtlessly acceptable present." — Introd. xxix.

t Equi. Regis., MS., P.R.O.

62 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

in 1484 and died in 1534. A strange fate befell his son George, the last male heir of this family, whose premature death was caused at Thetford " in the house of Sir Richard Fulmerstone, Knight, by meane of a vaunting horse, upon which horses as he meant to have vaunted, and the pins at the feet being not made sure, the horse fell upon him, and bruised the brains out of his head." — Stow's Chron., p. 662.

1° Gerald Fitz-Gerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, who was at this time in England. He had a celebrated stud of, so-called, Hobbies in Ireland, and a fragment of his stud book is still preserved in the MSS. of the British Museum. He. died December 12, 1534.

" Richard Whiting, the last Lord Abbot of Glastonbury monastery, was preferred to this vast religious house by Cardinal Wolsey in 1524. He governed his monastery with great prudence and judgment ; but, unwilling to surrender his abbey to the king, or to lend an ear to any of the solicitations which were offered him, he continued a firm opposer of the Re- formation ; whereupon he was soon after seized at his manor- house of Sharpham, in 1539, upon the pretence of embezzling the plate belonging to the convent, and without much formal process of law or equity, was drawn from Wells, where he had been condemned at the assizes, to Glastonbury on a hurdle, and hanged with two of his monks, on the hill called the Torr (where St. Michael's church now stands), being hurried out of the world without the least regard had to his age, and not so much as suffered to take leave of his convent. After his execution his head was set upon the abbey gate, and his quarters sent to Wells, Bath, Ilchester, and Bridgwater. He was head of the most ancient abbey in England, the governor of which had precedence of all the abbots in England, till the year 1154, when Pope Adrian IV. (the only Englishman that ever sat in the papal chair) gave that honour to the abbot of St. Albans, in Hertfordshire, in consideration of his having received his education in that monastery, and because the proto-martyr suffered there. He was always a member of

Book II.] TURFITES OF THE PERIOD. 63

the Upper House of Convocation, and a Parliamentary baron, being summoned by a particular writ to sit " inter pares, pro- ceres et barones regni," His apartment in the abbey was a kind of well-disciplined court, where the sons of noblemen and gentlemen were sent for education, and returned thence excel- lently accomplished. Abbot Whiting had bred up nearly three hundred after this manner, besides others of a meaner rank, whom he fitted for the universities. At home his table, attendance, and officers were an honour to the nation ; some- times he even entertained five hundred persons of fashion at a time, and every week, on Wednesdays and Fridays, all the poor of the neighbourhood were relieved by his particular charity, and when he went abroad he was attended by upwards of one hundred persons. His stud was kept at Sharpham ; and attached to the abbey, which must have been a paradise for sportsmen, was a lake five miles in circumference, and one and a half miles broad, wherein were "greate abundance of pykes, tenches, roches, and yeles, and dyvers other kyndes of fysshes." There was also a swanery of " xl couple," a heronry " to the nombre of iiii," while pheasants and ground game abounded.

^2 Charles Brandon, DuKE OF SUFFOLK, the king's brother- in-law.

^^ Sir George Lawson (son of Sir Thomas Lawson by a daughter of Sir — Dorrell, Knt.), of Little Usworth, in the county of Durham. He married Mabella, daughter and heir of Sir Reginald Carnaby, Knt., by whom he had four sons and three daughters.

" " Master Norrys." Afterwards Sir Henry Norris, Gen- tleman of the Privy Chamber (who had the exclusive privilege of accompanying the king to his bedroom), and Esquire of the body. His career is so well known that it is only neces- sary to remind the reader that he was convicted of a criminal intercourse with Anne Boleyn, and was consequently con- demned and beheaded, to justify the king's divorce.

64 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

The following orders were issued by the municipal

authorities at Chester, in the 31st year of Henry VIII.,

for the encouragement of archery and the Chester.

regulation of the sports on Shrove Tuesday, which took place in the presence of the mayor and aldermen, and owed their success in a great degree to the drapers', saddlers', and shoemakers' companies. It is recorded in the memorandum, "That the said occupaciouns of shoumacres, which alwayez time out of mannez remembraunce haue geuen and deliuered yearely upon teusday comonly cauled Shrofe teuesday, otherwyse Gowddesday, at afternone of the same, vnto the drapers afore the mayre of the citie, at the Cros vpon the Rode-hee, one bale of lether cauled a fout baule, of the value of iii.6-. iiii.^., or aboue, to pley at from thens the comon baule of the said citie. And further at pleasure of euille disposed persons, wherefore hath ryssen grete inconuenynce &c. — From- hensforth shall yerelye vpon the said Tuesday geue and delyuer vnto the said drapers afore the mayre of the said citie for the tyme being at the said playes and tyme, six gleaues of siluer, to the value of euery of them v\d., or aboue at the discretion of the drapers, and the mayre of the said citie for the tyme being. To whome shall run the best and furthest upon foot befor them upon the said Rode-hee that day or anye other daye after at the Drapers pleasure with the over- syght of the Mayer for the tyme beyng ; and allso that the said occupacion of saddlers within the said citie which be all the same tyme of no man's remembraunce haue geuin and delyuered yerelye the said place and

Book II.] CHESTER. 65

tymeeurye master of them vnto the said drapers, afore the mayre for the tyme being, a paynted baule of wood with floures and amies upon the poynte of a spere, being goodly arayd upon horsebacke acordingly, — from hensforth shall the said tuesday houre and place gyue and delyuer vnto the said drapers afor the mayre for the tyme beyng vpon horsbak a bell of syluer to the value of ms. \\\\d., or above, to be ordered as is aforesaid by the drapers and the mayre of the said citie for the tyme being to whome shall runne best and furthest vpon horsback before them the said daye and tyme and place ; and that allsoe euery man that hayth bene maryed within the said citie sithens Shraffs teuesday last past, shall vpon the said Shraffs tuesday next to come, at the said tyme and place, geue and delyuer vnto the said drapers afore the mayre being an arrow of siluer, to the value of fyve pence or aboue, in value and recompence of such baule of silk or veluet."

On every Easter Monday the Sheriffs of Chester used formerly to shoot, on the race-course, for a calfs- head and bacon breakfast, which, at a subsequent period, was changed by them : a piece of plate, to be run for by horses on Easter Tuesday, being substituted.

" The maner being thus : — The day before, the drum sowndeth through the cittie, with a proclamation for all gen- tlemen, yeomen, and good fellowes, that will come with their bowes and arrowes to take parte with one sheriff or the other, and upon Monday morning, on the Rode-dee, the mayor, shreeves, aldermen, and any other gentlemen, that wol be there, the one sherife chosing one, and the other sherife chosing another, and soe of the archers ; then one sherife VOL. I. F

66 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

shoteth, and the other sherife he shoteth to sJiode him, being at lencfth twelve score : soe all the archers on one side to shote till it be shode, and soe till three shutes be wonne, and then all the winner's side goe up together, firste with arrowes in their handes, and all the loosers with bowes in their hands together, to the common hall of the citie, wher the maior, aldermen, and gentlemen, and the reste, take parte together of the saide breakfaste in loveing manner ; this is yearly done, it beinge a commendable exercise, a good recreation, and a lovinge assemblye," *

Tradition says that in the year 946 an image of the

Blessed Virgin and a large cross were buried here. The

story is curious : — This image belonged to the

The Koodee.

church of Hawarden, and during the invoca- tions of the inhabitants for relief from a season of drought by which they were greatly suffering, being not securely fixed in its place, or not possessing that share of infallibility which has frequently been ascribed to the Virgin, It somewhat unexpectedly fell upon the head of Lady Trawst, the governor's wife, the effect of which was fatal. In consequence of this catastrophe, the Inhabitants of the place held a consultation as to the most proper mode of disposing of the Image ; and after due deliberation Its sentence was : — " To be banished from that place by being laid on the sands of the river ; the tide might convey It to whatever other quarter the Virgin whom It represented should think proper." As It was low water when the Image was taken to the sands, the flood tide carried It, of course, up the river ; and on the day following it was found near the Roodee, where It was Immediately In-

* Hemingway, " Hist, of Chester," vol. i., p. 210.

Book II.] YORKSHIRE AND LORRAINE. 67

terred by the inhabitants of Chester with all pomp and solemnity, and a large stone was placed over the grave with this inscription :

The Jewes theire God dide crucifie,

The Harderners theires dide drowne, 'Cause with theire wantes she'd not complye ;

And lyes under thys colde stone. *

Referring to Doncaster races temp. Queen Anne, the Rev. Joseph Hunter tells us that " there had been public races on the same ground loner before „ , ,.

^ & & Yorkshire :

this time. Ralph Rokeby, in his memoir Doncaster.

r -i • r '^ • 1 1 • Gaterly.

01 his own lamily, mentions that his ^^^^^^ Moor. uncle, Thomas Rokeby, of Morton, was as- Hambieton.

, ., York.

saulted and wounded by Christopher Nevil, brother to the Earl of Westmoreland, at the races at Gaterly. This was in the middle of the sixteenth century. Acombe Moor, near York, was another scene of these amusements in the reign of Charles L The Black Hamilton Hills were long celebrated for such meetings, and the Knavesmire, near York, is only nozv (1828) giving place to the course at Doncaster." — " South Yorkshire," p. 29.

As a curious commentary on the age, we must not omit to refer to the predilection for the Turf manifested by an English nobleman during his exile at

T-\ 1 Metz.

Metz, in Lorraine, at this period. The Duke of Suffolk,^^ although banished, and far from the scene of his national sports and pastimes, nevertheless attempted to participate in the pleasures of racing ; and the two matches in question are novel events in their way. The surroundings will raise a smile, particularly the

* Bingley, " Executions in North Wales," p. 241.

68 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

extraordinary method observed in training the winner, which must have been one of those faint-hearted animals of the same kidney as those in our own enhghtened times, that cannot achieve victory without first partaking of a bottle of whiskey. But to train a horse on stimulating beverages alone is, indeed, unique.

^^ Richard de la Pole, or Blanche Rose, as he was familiarly called by his contemporaries, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, was the third son of John de la Pole, who, having married the Lady Elizabeth Plantagenet, sister to King Edward IV. and King Richard III., was confirmed as Duke of Suffolk by letters patent, dated March 23, 1463. Through this alliance Richard de la Pole, the 3rd Duke of Suffolk, aspired to the throne of England, although his predecessors, little more than a century prior to this date, were only merchants at Kingston-upon-HuU. Edmund de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, the elder brother of the notable Turfite who is the subject of this memoir, was one of the last persons of rank attached to the fortunes of the House of York, who entered the service of Henry VII. ; but his successor, becoming alarmed at the duke's claims to the crown, had him beheaded on Tower Hill, April 30, 15 13, when all his honours and estates were declared forfeited. Notwithstanding the attain- der, execution, and the consequent forfeiture of this duke, his brother Richard, then living an exile in France, assumed the honours of his family, and boldly asserted his claims to the throne of England. His pretensions were recognized at the court of France, and Louis XII., besides promising to assist him with men and arms, gave him an annual pension of 36,000 crowns. But when the fortunes of Blanche Rose looked most promising, they were blighted by the peace made between Louis and Henry, in July, 15 14, when the latter gave his sister Mary in marriage to Louis. Both the Emperor of Germany and the Dauphin were displeased at this, for Louis wished thereby to keep the Dauphin from the crown of

Book II.] BLANCHE ROSE. 69

France. Among other conditions of this treaty there was one whereby it was tacitly understood that Louis was to give up the Duke of Suftblk to Henry. This baseness, how- ever fell through, owing to the duke's escape to Metz, in Lorraine, when his pension was reduced to 6000 crowns. In the meantime Paris was en fete, on account of the celebration of the peace and the royal wedding festivities. The story of this marriage is told by all our historians, and it would not require notice at our hands, but that a French contemporary reference to it has lately come to light, in which the writer said, " that the king had got a white hackney from England which would soon take him post to Paradise " — a true con- clusion, as within three months from the time of his marriage he sank, after a short illness, into the grave, while the widow soon after married Charles Brandon, "the other" Duke of Suffolk. When Blanche Rose heard of the death of Louis, he left Metz secretly for Paris, to wait on Francis I., riding so fast, " that he made forty leagues between day and night." His negotiations with the new king, and his proceedings until his return to Metz in the spring of 15 17, we need not stop to consider, as these events do not concern our subject. How- ever, shortly after his return to Metz we find him indulging in the pleasures of the Turf " He possessed a horse which he valued highly, and he often said that there was not his equal within a hundred leagues of Metz, and finally backed him to run against a horse belonging to Seigneur Nicolle Dex, from the elm at Avegney to within St. Clement's Gate, for eighty crowns ; and the money was paid into neutral hands. On St. Clement's Day, Saturday, May 2nd, ' et a ce jour meisme, que Ton courre I'awaine et le baicon au dit lieu St. Clement,' the two gentlemen, with several others, rose early, and had St. Thiebault's gate opened before the usual time, and so passed into the fields for the race. For two or three days before Dex had treated his horse as a friend, and given him no hay, and had nothing to drink but white wine (' le dit seigneur Nicolle n'avoit point donne de foin a son chevaulx, ne n'avoit beu aultre chose que du vin blanc '). He had also very light steel shoes made

^o THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book IT.

for him, and came into the field Hke a groom, in his doublet and without shoes, and with no saddle, but a cloth tied round the horse's belly. Blanche Rose, who rode with a saddle, passed Nicolle for some time ; but when they were near St. Laidre, his horse lagged behind, so that the duke urged him on wuth spurs until the blood streamed down on both sides ; but it was in vain. Nicolle gained the race and the hundred and sixty crowns of the sum." Such was the termination of the duke's first horse-race at Metz. Two years afterwards a somewhat similar match was run. " On St. Clement's Day, 1518, Blanche Rose again undertook to run his horse against Nicolle Dex, by a page, for twenty-one crowns ; but the page fell, and Nicolle was again victorious. Soon after, on May 8th, he (the duke) left Metz for France." During this time the quondam Duke of Suffolk was solicit- ing foreign powers to lend him troops to invade England. Both Francis I. and the King of Denmark promised to help him, and BlufT King Hal, though not really alarmed for the safety of his crown, was very anxious to get him out of the way. As we learn from the State Papers, plots were on foot for his assassination ; and although some of his servants were betraying him, he was destined to fall fairly in the field of battle. To make a long story short, these plots and counter- plots led to hostilities in Scotland and in France. The Scotch, under the Duke of Albany, were soon rendered harm- less ; De la Pole's projected descent upon the English shores was consequently abandoned, and the course was clear for Henry's expedition to France. At the head of the English forces was Charles Brandon, created Duke of Suffolk by Henry VH I. in 15 14, and it is a somewhat singular coincidence, that, like De la Pole, he too should be one of the finest horse- men of the age. Thus we find the two Dukes of Suffolk in the field, at Terouenne and Tournay — De la Pole at the head of six thousand French troops, Brandon in command of a division of the English forces. Neither of these com- manders fell in that campaign (which was fatal to the Cheva- lier Bayard and several other distinguished officers), but on February 24, 1524-5, Richard de la Pole was killed at the

Book II.] THE ANGLO-MANTUA HORSES. 71

battle of Pavia, when the French were defeated by the aUies, Francis I. having been taken prisoner and carried to IMadrid. The valour De la Pole displayed in this engagement extorted the praise even of his foes ; and the Duke of Bourbon, honour- ing his remains with splendid obsequies, assisted in person as one of the chief mourners. Thus terminated the male line of this gallant and highly gifted race ; and the dukedom of Suffolk passed without challenge by the new creation to King Henry VIII.'s brother-in-law, the celebrated Charles Brandon above mentioned.*

In the spring of the year 15 14 Giovanni Ratto was sent by the Marquis of Mantua with a present of thoroughbred horses to Henry VIII. From these and some subsequent drafts were descended, in all proba- bility, many of the English race-horses of the sixteenth century. Ratto wrote to the marquis, his master, from London, March 20, 15 14, describing the fulfilment of his mission.

On the 20th March, " at a place called Hampton, four miles from London," he presented the horses to the king, who was so much pleased that, " had the marquis given him a kingdom, he could not have been more delighted ; and went from one nobleman to another saying, ' What think you of these mares ? They were sent to me by my cousin the Marquis of Mantua.' The king was quite astonished at seeing the mares in action, and said to the noblemen on the spot that he had never beheld better animals. The French Duke of Longueville, who was captured at Terouenne, was present at the time, and told the

* For some interesting details of the career of Richard de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, see " Gedenkbuch des metzer Burgers Philippe von Vigneulles," aus den Jahren 147 1 bis 1522. " Nach Der Handschrift Des Verfassers Herausgegeben," von Dr. Heinrich IMichelant. Stuttgart, 1852.

72 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

king that there were no such valuable mares at the court of the Kine of France." Ratto assured the king that if the mares were less good than the king deserved, yet he besought him to accept the loving service of the marquis, who had shown all the mares to Master Thomas Sieno {sic), (whom Henry sent to Mantua to obtain thoroughbred horses for him), requesting he would take such as he pleased to gratify the king's taste, but that Master Thomas declined doing anything of the sort. Ratto added that the marquis had a stud of Barbary mares, of " miche " and of jennets, and of great mares, which he offered to the king, " together with his territories and children, and his own person." Thereupon the king desired Ratto to return many thanks to the marquis in his name, inquiring what he could do to please him. Ratto replied that the marquis was the king's good servant. The queen was present during this conver- sation, which induced Ratto to put " the bright bay " through his paces in the Spanish fashion, exhibiting the horse to the admiration of everybody. The king said to him, "Is not this the best horse?" He answered in the affirmative, to the gratification of the king, who approaching the horse patted him, saying, "So ho, my minion."'" After this the king caused Ratto to be asked secretly what present would please the marquis, " and he replied nothing but the king's love ; though his intention was evinced of purchasing

* Mr. Rawdon Brown says : " Mention is made of this horse in the '' Fioretto delle CronicJie di Mantova,' p. 72. He was a Mantuan 'barb' or race-horse, and the marquis had been offered for him his weight in silver, but preferred making a present of the animal to Henry VIII." — S. P. Venetian, vol. ii., p. 162.

Book II.] RE-IMPORTED BY HENRY VIII. 73

some hobbies, and three couples of staunch hounds." Having put " the bright bay " through his paces again, he presented a scimitar to the king, who was much pleased with that " specimen of oriental workmanship."

Henry was delighted with these animals, "saying that he had never ridden better trained horses, and that for years he had not received a more agreeable present."'" These celebrated barbs were not name- less, as we learn that " during four or six days the king rode both Altobello and Governatore, and liked them much, but preferred Governatore." f His Majesty assured Ratto that in all his days he had never ridden a horse that pleased him more than Governatore, and directed his Italian secretary to inform the marquis of his gratification with the noble present, " as the horses were not only very beautiful, but of surpassing excellence."

As to what the " Italian secretary " wrote we have not been able to discover, but soon after the king himself sent the following interesting letter to the marquis relative to those racers, which he terms, " pulcherimis, parterq' genecosissimus, acprestantissimis uris equis." |

Henry, by the grace of God King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, etc., to the excellent Lord Prince, Francis, Marquis of Mantua, standard-bearer of the Holy Roman Empire, our very dear friend, greeting.

We have learnt from our intimate friend, Thomas Cene, with what affection, magnificence, and expression of singular

* Ratto to the Marquis of Mantua. Lend., June 27, 15 14. t Ratto to Mantua. Lond., June 30, 15 14.

% Harl. MS., 3462, fo. 147 (123). Translated from the Latin of the MS.

74 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

favour and regard towards us he has been entertained by your excellency ; and that your very noble stables were thrown open to him, and that he was earnestly requested to choose for us what horses he most approved of When he refused to avail himself of this generosity, he says your excellency's self selected the four most beautiful of them all for us, which we have received with your letters by your messenger, John Ratto, a man most circumspect and careful, and very well versed not only in horsemanship, but also in courteous behaviour, with which I have been marvellously pleased ; and we have read, to our very great delight, what you write touching your ardent affection towards ourself, and we have heard most gladly what the same gentleman, your messenger, has reported to us with so much discreetness in your name. And so many kind offices of yours towards ourself have at once presented themselves to us, that it is not very easy to determine for what we should first return thanks. But, foremost, we thank you most heartily for that your supreme good will towards ourself, which we cannot mistake ; and for your exceeding desire of deserving well at our hands, as well as for those most beaiitifiil, high-bred, and surpassing horses just sent to us. These we hold highly welcome and acceptable, as well because they are most excellent, as that they have been sent from the very best feeling and intention. Moreover, most grateful to us has proved that enlarged bounty which you have exercised towards the aforesaid, our intimate friend. And although we have long ago honoured you, in no small degree, for your well-proved nobleness of mind, your skill in war, and virtues ; now, however, when we discern your excellency to be so singularly affected towards us, we receive and number your excellency, with your most noble children, among our dearest friends, and we hold all belonging to you in the very highest esteem. And we intreat you that, in whatever matter (how- ever great it may be) you suppose it to be possible for us to be serviceable to your own dignity and interest, and that of any of yours, you will signify it confidently to us, and we will do our endeavour, that you may be convinced of our reciprocal

Book IL] WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN SILVER. 75

good will towards you. And farewell, with prosperity and happiness !

From our Palace of Eltham, i6th day of July, 15 14,

Henry.*

Another draft of four horses and two jennets appear to have been received by the king from the marquis in the autumn of this year ; more were promised, as soon as they were trained (? broken), for which " innumerable thanks " were tendered in advance, as they could not fail to be excellent " coming from such a stud," — the regard in which those already received were held by Henry is exemplified, — they were probably at the stud, and only ridden by him " on state occasions.

On the 1 8th of August, the king wrote from Greenwich, again thanking the marquis for " his very noble present," announcing the departure of " our intimate friend and knight Griffith," with some English horses " saddled and harnessed in their full trappings," partly for his Excellency, and partly for " his illustrious consort." f

There are many historical references to the thoroughbred horses Henry VIII. obtained from the Marquis of Mantua. Sebastian Giustinian, Venetian

* The friendship between the king and the Duke of Mantua was curiously illustrated at a later period. He had been cited by the Pope to appear before a general council, to be held at Mantua, to answer certain accusations to be there laid against him. It is supposed Mantua was selected as the most likely place to entrap the king, who, it was presumed, might be attracted thither by the duke's stud, which Henry was anxious to visit. The duke, however, defied the Pope, and would not allow the council to assemble there, and so the plot fell through.

t Harl. MS., 3462 (Latin).

76 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

Ambassador in England, in a despatch to the Signory, describes the Mayday gaieties of the Court in 1 5 1 5 ; and records that he saw the king on a bay horse, which had been sent to him as a present by the marquis, upon which his Majesty performed such feats that he fancied himself looking at Mars !

Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua,* then in his forty-ninth year, was renowned for his stud of horses, of which the preceding and the following drafts are mentioned as being received in this country by the king. In 15 17, and most likely in the interval, further additions from Mantua's stud arrived in Eng- land for the King and the Duke of Suffolk, the recipro- cation being usually English hounds and hobbies.f

Amongf other strains of Eastern blood in Eno^land at this time, we find a stallion given to the king by the late Duke of Urbino,J at the paddock at Hampton Court, whose services were appropriated by Cardinal Wolsey. His Eminence was a famous horseman, and was always energetic in improving the breed of horses in this country. In 1515, Ferdinand of Arragon, King of Spain, sent Henry two "excellent horses," and in

* In March, 1530, the Emperor Charles V. paid a visit to Gonzaga's stud, when he raised the Margravate of Mantua to a Duchy. During this visit the Emperor's master of the horse, Count de Montford, suddenly died there.

t Francesco Chieregato to Mantua. Lond., May 28, 15 17.

X One day the king mounted Ratto on this horse, to see how he would manage him. He put the horse through his paces, to the astonishment of the king, who said he thought Ratto must have ridden the horse before. The king then asked him whether, without displeasing the Marquis of Mantua, he could enter his service, promising good pay. He replied that he would never wrong the marquis, whose servant he was, and that he would never act thus were he in the service of his Majesty, whom he preferred serving at Mantua rather than in "England.

Book II.] THE ROYAL STUD.

77

15 18 the latter sent " a Bolognese gentleman " and an Englishman to bring him horses from Italy,*

Frizzi, in his " History of Ferrara," mentions the fact of the Duke Alfonso's havino- sent one of his courtiers, named Girolamo Sestola, to Henry VHI. with a present of a most superb horse with gold trap- pings, and three trained falcons and a leopard, which last kind of prey was used in Italy in those times to course hares. f In October, 1515, Ferdinand, King of Arragon, sent Henry VIII. a present of two famous horses, caparisoned regio ornatu, said to have been worth upwards of one hundred thousand ducats. J

In April, 15 19, Sir Gregory de Cassalis, then at Bologna, was commissioned by Henry VIII. to pur- chase for him the best horses procurable at the time in Spain and Italy. For this purpose he went to the Duke of Ferrara, announced his business, was shown the duke's stud and allowed to choose what he pleased. None were up to the ideal standard, nevertheless two were selected which were "of the breed of Isabella, duchess of Milan." Ferrara, in a letter to Henry,

* Cardinal Campeggio to the Marquis of Mantua. Lond., Nov. lo, 1518.

t Sanuto mentions having seen a leopard take a hare at Vigevano in 1496 ; and in an Adoration of the Magi, attributed to Titian, in the Manfrini gallery, two leopards are seen in a leash like dogs. Frizzi says, the mission and present had for object to induce Henry VIII. to persuade Leo. X. to restore Modena and Roggio to the Duke of Ferrara.

X Ferdinand the Catholic was at this time considered insane because he gave those horses to his son-in-law. He is said to have never recovered the effects of the aphrodisiac dish which his new queen, Ger- maine de Fois, set before him in the month of March, 15 13, as recorded in one of the letters of Peter Martyr, who in a subsequent epistle says King Ferdinand died of "hunting and matrimony, either of which are fatal to most men at the age of si.\ty-three."

78 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

apologizes for being unable to render him more as- sistance in the selection, and would gladly have sent him better animals, " but that the breed of horses in his country is very much degenerated."* The follow- ing year Sir Gregory obtained for the king another horse " which had no fellow in Italy." f

The king wrote from Greenwich on the 8th of January, 1533, to Frederick, Duke of Mantua, thanking him for a present of mares which he had just received by Ippolito Pagano, "a gift most aggreeable, not merely because he delights greatly in horses of that breed {illo equorum gcnere), but also because " they were sent by his Excellency." \ In reciprocation Henry sent the duke two English horses § {gradmnos equos), probably descendants of the celebrated barbs imported in 1514. In 1537 the duke wrote to Mattheo Deir Agnella, surnamed " El Barba," who was then in London, requesting him to send him " an English- bred hobby." II

In June, 1530, 248 crowns = ^57 ijs. \d., was charged to the Privy Purse for bringing three horses, two men, and one boy from " Mantwaye." About this time we read of drafts of this strain having been sent to Spain, which proves the reputation of the Mantua stud.^

* Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., MSS., P.R.O.

IMS. Vit. bk. iv. 37, B.M. Cf. Shakespeare's King Henry the Eighth — " The league between his Highness and Ferrara . . . To Gregory de Cassalis to conclude."

X Ferdinand Charles, last Duke of Mantua, died in 1706, when the Emperor of Austria took possession of his dominions. The duke's stud was continued, and strains of the Anglo-Arabian breed are probably still to be found at the now Imperial harras.

§ S. P. Venetian, vol. iv., 840, p. 374. || Ibid., vol. v., 135, p. 54.

IF S.P. England and Spain, vol. iii., p. 2, p. 609.

Book II.] AGAIN BECOMES FAMOUS. 79

The improvement already effected in horse breed- ing at the royal paddocks must have been considerable, as Henry VIII. was enabled to send (November, 1526) Francis the First a present of eighteen horses.* In 1539 he received twenty-five "beautiful Spanish horses " from the Emperor Charles V.|

Sebastian Giustinian, Venetian ambassador in Eng- land, in a despatch dated September 10, 15 19, in a description of the king, says, " he was extremely fond of hunting, and never took that divertion without tiring eight or ten horses, which he caused to be stationed beforehand along the line of country he meant to take. He was also fond of tennis, at which game it was the prettiest thing in the world to see him play, his fair skin glowing through a shirt of the finest texture. He gambled with the French hostages to the amount, occasionally, it was said, of from 6000 to 8000 ducats in a day." \

In certain articles " devised by his royal highness,§ with the advice of his council, for the establishment of good order and reformation of sundry errors and mis- uses in his household and chambers," dated " apud Eltham, mense January [an°] 22 Henry VIII." it appears that at this date, coursers, young horses, hunting geldings, hobbies, Barbary horses, stallions, geldings, mail, bottle, pack, Besage, and two stalking

* S.P. Venetian, vol. iii., 1436, 1437.

t Itinerary, sub. ann.

X Venetian State Papers, No. 1286, vol. ii., p. 557.

§ The title Majesty was not given to our kings till a reign or two after. Twenty-four loaves of bread a day were allowed for the royal greyhounds.

8o THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

horses, numbering- in all eighty-six, were at the royal stud at Eltham.* An interesting account of the number and description of the horses, officers of the stable, etc., necessary for a royal progress is given in the Loseley MS., edited by E. J. Kempe, F.S.A. Lond. 1836, pp. 98, 100.

The career of Henry VIII. is too well known to require any memoir at our hands ; suffice it to mention that he never spared man in his wrath or woman in his lust.

About the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII. is said to have staked the great bells of St. Paul's against ij'ioo with Sir Miles Partridge upon a cast of dice. The latter won, " and then causing the bells to be broken as they hung, the rest (in the belfry) was pulled down and broken also." t This peal was " the greatest in England," % and deserved a better fate. Partridge was executed on Tower Hill, "for some criminal offences," in the year 1551.

As we have already seen, Bluff King Hal patronized the Turf, kept a racing establishment, was an importer of Arab blood and of other approved strains of the equine race. He was second son of Henry VII. and Elizabeth, eldest daughter and heir of Edward IV.; succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, April 22, 1509; married and murdered (or divorced) his six wives ; died January 28, 1546-7.

The Emperor Charles V. sent Edward VI. a pre- sent of '' two most beautiful Spanish horses," which were received in London on March 26, 1550, as mentioned by Bishop Hooper in a letter to Henry Bullinger.§

* Archae., vol. iii., pp. I57, I59-

t Stow's " Survey of the Cities of Lond. and Westminster," by Strype. Lond. 1720, vol. i., book iii., 148 b. X Harl. Miscellany, vol. ii., p. no. § Zurich Letters, iii., 81.

EooK 11] EDWARD VI. Sr

Respecting" this present of horses several documents are preserved in the Pubhc Record Office, from which it appears that certain instructions were drawn up and furnished to Sir Jaques Granado, Knight, one of the esquires of the stable, who was entrusted to con- vey the racers to " the French king and the dolphin of Fraunce and the constable of Fraunce, as tokens and presentes from his Ma''^ to every of them." Formal despatches were drafted by the council, minutes passed, and warrants issued in connection with this business, which assumed the aspect of some momentous affair of state. At Paris there was also much ado. Sir William Pickering writes from the British Embassy there, to the council here, describing the reception of the horses by the French king. Sir Jaques was duly presented, delivered his credentials and the horses, which Henry II. willingly accepted, and said, "that his good brother had somewhat prevented him, for he hadde longe agoo appointed a lyke present and of the same commodities his country bare, which he wolde also shortly sende unto his highness."

In another despatch Sir William wrote as follows : " Mr. Granado hath taken his leave, and hath in reward three cheynes,* one of the king, the queue, and dol- phin, in valeue by estimacion viij. C. f crownes. The Kinges ma''^ shalle have sent him from hence vj. cor- talles, iij. Spanishe horses, one torke,J a barbery, one cowerser, and ij. lyttel mewles." § The " cowerser " seems to have been the same which King Edward in

* Chains. f 800 crowns. % Turk.

§ Sir W. Pickering to the Council, from Melun, December 8, 1551.

VOL. I. G

82 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book 11.

his Journal* terms "a sturring-horse." It seems pro- bable that these horses were selected from the royal stud at Fontainebleau.'l'

Sir Jaques Granado, the equerry, met his death in his vocation in the year 1552, being accidentally thrown from his horse in the privy garden at White- hall, in the presence of Queen Mary and King Philip, and killed on the spot.J

Notwithstanding Holinshed's aspersions, it is very likely the encouragement given by Henry VI I L was conducive to, and actually produced very salutary re- sults in, the cultivation of the English horse. The royal studs may have deteriorated as he asserts, but there can be no doubt that many of the most approved and valued strains continued to be bred from by noblemen and gentlemen throughout the country, such as Sir Nicholas Arnold, otherwise Edward VI. would not be able to eulogize the number and superiority of the horses he saw at the musters in 1551. Writing on the 20th of December in that year to his friend Barnaby Fitzpatrick, he tells him the musters were well armed, " and so horsed as was never seen, and, I dare say, so many good horses, and so well armed men. ^

* In the king's journal or diary (now preserved in the British Museum

MS. Cotton Nero C. x.) the following entry occurs under date January

27, 1 55 1-2 ; "Paris arrived with horses, and shewed how the French king

, had sent me [a present of] six cortalles, tow Turkes, a barbary, tow

genettes, a sturring horse, and tow litle muyles, and shewd them to me."

t Henry II. to Edward VI. from Fontainebleau, December 4, 1551.

X Machyn's Diary, p. 135. Ibid., p. 356.

§ Barnaby Fitzpatrick was the elder son of an Irish chieftain, who, after the suppression of the rebellion of the Geraldines in 1537, made his

Book II.] QUEEN ELIZABETH. 83

In 1552, by sec. 15 of the council ordinances, " for the strength and wealth of the realm," commissioners were appointed to view the state of the realm for keeping of great horses, and to see whether the statute made concerning the same was duly observed. This referred to the Act passed i Edw. VI., cap. 5, prohibiting the exportation of horses out of the realm without the king's licence under his great or privy seal ; and in consequence of the wars on the continent, which created a demand for horses there, a proclama- tion was issued on the 5th of October, 1552, to enforce the observance of that Act. The same prohibition had been enacted by the Act of 11 Henry VII., and by several statutes of Henry VIII.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth ^'^ the Turf made considerable progress in England and Scotland. Good Queen Bess became its great patroness, kept up the royal studs, probably entered and ran her own horses, and frequently honoured race-meetings with her presence. Race-meetings are specifically men- tioned, and in some cases minutely described, at Salis- bury, Doncaster, Huntingdon, Croydon (the Ascot of that era), Richmond (Yorkshire), and Carlisle ; and in Scotland there were probably several fixtures besides

submission to the English monarch, was created a peer of Ireland, by the title of Baron of Upper Ossory, in 1 541, and was knighted in 1543. Young Fitzpatrick being retained at the English court as a hostage for his father's good behaviour, as well as for his own education, he became the favourite companion of the prince. When at an age to travel, Barnaby went to the French court, furnished at King Edward's cost, and during this period an interesting correspondence passed between them. In 1577 he slew the great rebel Rory O'More. He died at Dublin, September 1 1, 1 581. He had a rare stud of hobbies at one time, and was probably a patron of the turf in the days of the Virgin Queen.

84 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

those at Haddington, Peebles, Dumfries, and Teviot- dale, of which we have no records. The sport, doubt- less, continued as of yore at Chester and many other localities identified with racing, including the environs of the metropolis, where there appears to have been several courses which subsequently became " a wilder- ness of houses."

^^ Queen Elizabeth — daughter of Henry VIII. and his second wife, Anne Boleyn — born September 7, 1533 ; ascended the throne November 17, 1558 ; died March 24, 1603. In her youth, Elizabeth was a good horsewoman ; and indeed, after she ascended the throne, her Majesty frequently rode on horseback during her progresses through the country. As we have already seen, the Virgin Queen was a notable patroness of the Turf, kept a racing establishment, and probably had the pleasure of seeing some of her own horses go first past the winning-post. More than any other English sovereign, Elizabeth lived among her subjects, and even long after her death, her birthday was kept in " memory green " throughout the realm.

Turning to the Annals we ascertain the following details :

In the month of May, 1574, preparations were made by Archbishop Parker for a visit of the queen Croydon. at his palace of Croydon during the races ; 0.1574. ^^^ ]yjj.^ 5^ Bowyer, the queen's usher of the black rod, was sent down to prepare lodgings for her Majesty and her officers of state, attendants, etc. ; but, after all these preparations, the visit was deferred.

Among the distinguished persons who were to accompany the queen, lodgings were provided at the palace for the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord Treasurer

C. 1574.] CROYDON. 85

and his Lady, the Lady Warwick, the Earl of Leicester, the Lord Admiral, the Lady Howard, the Lord Hunsdon, Mr. Secretary Walsingham, the Lady Stafford, Mr. Hennage, Mrs. Drewrey, the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, Mrs. Abbing- ton, the Maids of Honour, Sir George Howard, the Captain of the Guard, the Grooms of the Privy Chamber, the Esquires of the Body, the Gentlemen Ushers, the Royal Physicians, the Keeper of the Queen's Robes, the Groom Porter, the Clerk of the Kitchen, and "the Wardrobe of the Bedes." Bowyer s difficulties now commenced : " For the Queen's Wayghters, I cannot as yet fynde anye convenyent romes to place them in, but I will doo the best y' I can to place them elsewher but yf y' please you S"", y' I doo remove them. The Gromes of the Privye Chamber nor Mr. Drewrye have no other waye to their Cham- bers but to pass throwe that waye agayne that my Lady of Oxford should come. I cannot then tell wher to place Mr. Hatton, and for my Lady Carewe here is no place with a chimney for her but that must ley abrode by Mrs. Aparry and the rest of the Privye Chambers. For Mrs. Shelton here is no romes with chymeneys ; I shall staye [keep] one chamber without for her. Here is as mutche as I have any wayes able to doo in this house." * The description reads like the festivities at Windsor Castle durinof an Ascot week in the reign of George IV.

In April, 1585, the queen, accompanied by a brilliant retinue, attended the races at Croydon, when

* Nichols, " Progress of Queen Elizabeth," vol. i., pp. 385, 386.

86 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

34^-. was expended on a stand (which can hardly be termed " grand ") for the use of her Majesty during the meeting.'" She was also present in 1587,! and again in 1588, when similar accommodation was pro- vided on the course for her to see the races.J

" These two years, in March, there was a race run with horses, at the furthest three miles from Sarum, at Salisbury, which were divers noble personages, whose c. 1585. names are underwritten, and the Earl of Cumberland won the golden bell, which was valued at ^50 and better, the which Earl is to bring the same again next year, which he promised to do, upon his honour, to the mayor of this city.

" The Earl of Cumberland," the Earl of Warwick,^^ the Earl of Pembroke,^^ the Earl of Essex,'"^*^ the Lord Chandos,-^ the Lord Thomas Howard, the Lord William Howard,^- Sir Walter Hungerford,-^ Sir John Danvers,'* Sir Thomas Wroughton,-^ Sir William Courtenay,"^ Sir Matthew Arundell,^^ Mr. Thomas George,^^ of Her Majesty's Privy Council, with divers others." § " During the stay of the Earl of Essex, he gave

* "To Frauncs Coote for thallowance of him selfe for makinge readye a standinge for her ma"° at the horse race at Croydon, by the space of ij days mens. Aprilis 1585 . . . xxxiv'." — Wardrobe Accounts, Treasurer of the Chamber, box F, bundle 2, m. 64, 65. The " Bishoppes house at Croydon" was made ready at a cost to her Majesty of ^8 i^s. \d.

t Similar expenses occurred during this visit. — Ibid., m. 91.

+ The Apparelers were engaged six days making ready the Archie- piscopal Palace : also a standing " against the runninge of the horses there xxxixs."— /^^/V/., m. 105, MS. P.R.O.

§ Records of the Corporation of Salisbury, quoted by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart., in " Hist. Wilts," vol. vi., p. 294.

1589

1^3' SALISBURY. 87

a golden snaffle for the encouragement of the races recently established. Soon after the change of mayors in 1602, we find this memorandum : —

"'March 11, 1603. At this assembly, Mr. Henry Boyle, late mayor, hath brought in and delivered to Mr. James Haviland, now mayor of the City, the golden bell appointed for the races, and given to this City by the Right Honourable Henry, late Earl of Pembroke, and also one golden snaffle, lately given to this City by the Earl of Essex.' "—" The History of Wiltshire," vol. vi., p. 306 (Extracts zn'de Municipal Records of Salisbury, ledger C, fol. 172), by Sir R. C. Hoare, Bart.

^'' George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, was a conspicuous patron, and one of the victims, of the Turf at this period. Educated at the university of Cambridge and at- taching himself to the study of mathematics, imbibing thereby a passion for navigation, that he soon afterwards became eminent as a naval commander, having undertaken at his own expense several voyages for the public service. That, and a passion for horse-racing, tournaments, and similar pursuits, made such inroads upon his fortune, that he was said to have wasted more of his estate than any one of his ancestors. His lordship was elected a Knight of the Garter in 1592.- His character is thus depicted in the manuscript memoirs of his celebrated daughter, Anne, Countess of Dorset and Pembroke : — " He was endowed with many perfections of nature so be- fitting so noble a personage, as an excellent quickness of wit and apprehension, an active and strong body, and an affable disposition and behaviour. But as good natures, through human frailty, are often misled, so he fell in love with a lady of quality, which did by degrees, draw and aliene his love and affections from his so virtuous and well-deserving wife ; it being the cause of many discontents between them for many

88 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book IL

years together, so that at length, for two or three years before his death, they parted houses, to her extreme grief and sorrow, and also to his extreme sorrow at the time of his death ; for he died a very penitent man, in the duchy-house, called the Savoy, 30 October, 1605, aged 47 years, 2 months, and 22 days, being born at Brougham Castle, 8 Augt. 1558." *

* Burke's "Dormant and Extinct Peerages," ed. 1866, p. 123. For accounts of his voyages "vide " Purchas Plis Pilgrimes," part iv. Lond. 1625, fo. — On one occasion he missed, by three or four days, the Spanish fleet at the Island of Fayael, where they discharged " fortie millions of gold and silver " which he might have captured, " as the Spaniards them- selves confessed," instead of the small galleon which he took which was valued at only ;^i 50,000. Politically he was Ultramontain, and at one time in league with the Northern Lords (who, like himself, were addicted to the chase and the Turf) concerning the plot to depose Elizabeth and to place Maiy Queen of Scots on the throne (see Froude, chaps, xvii., xviii.). " Malgre les richesses immenses conquises par Clifford, la con- struction et I'armement de ses vaisseaux, son gout pour les joutes et les courses de chevaux lui firent dissiper une partie de son patrimonie. II mourut en 1605." — Biegi'aphie Universelli., Paris, 181 3. " He sold much land at Rotherham and Malton to the Earl of Shrewsbury and others, and to Sir Michael Stanupp, so that he consumed more of his Estate than [ever] any of his Ancestors did by much, to which his continual building of ships, and his many sea voyages, gave great occasion to these Vast cxpences of his, and that which did contribute the more to the consuming of his estate, was his extream love to Horse-races, Tiltings, Bowling matches. Shooting, and all such expensive sports . . . Queen Elizabeth made him Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, and made him her Champion at all the Tiltings from the 35th year of her reigne till her Death, for in those exercises of Tilting, Turnings and Courses of the field, he did excell all the nobility of his time . . . Also K. James, her Successor, made this George Earl of Cumberland, one of his Privy Counsell and Conferred some gifts of profit upon him in part of recompence for the great Service he had done in England in his many Sea Voyages — A Summary of the Vetriponts, Cliffords and Earls of Cu/nberland and of the Lady An?ie^ Countess Dowager of Petnbroke, Dorsett, and Moittgomery^ &=€. Daughter and Heir to George Clifford, Earl of Cund)erland, iti whom ye Name of the said Cliffords Determi}ied ! " — Harleian MS., 6177, fo. 98.

After the death of the second Earl of Cumberland, in 1572, in an inventory of his effects, etc., at Skipton Castle, the following horses and geldings are mentioned, with a valuation attached to each : Young Marc- antony, stoned, ^16; Grey Clyfiford, ^11 ; Whyte Dacre, ^10; Sorrell Tempest, ^4 ; Whit Tempest, ^5 ; Baye Tempest, ^^5 ; Baye Myddleton, £\ ; Mayres and ther followers, 11 ; Carthorses, 10.

Mr. Morant remarks — " With respect to the earl's stud of horses, there

Book II.] THE EARL OF WARWICK. 89

^^ Through the especial favour of the Queen, in the 3rd and 4th of PhiHp and Mary, Lord Ambrose Dudley, then eldest surviving son of the attainted John Dudley, Duke of Northum- berland, was restored in blood ; and in the first year of Elizabeth he obtained a grant of the manor of Bibworth Beauchamp, county Leicester, to be held by service of pantler to the kings and queens of England at their coronations, which manor and office his father and other of his ancestors. Earls of Warwick, formerly enjoyed. In the next year he was made master of ordinance for life, and two years afterwards, December 25, 1561, advanced to the peerage as Baron LTsle preparatory to his being created next day Earl OF WARWICK, when he obtained a grant of Warwick Castle, and divers other lordships in the same county, which had come to the crown upon the attainder of his father. His lordship was afterwards created a Knight of the Garter. In the 12th Elizabeth, upon the insurrection in the North of the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland, the Earl of Sussex being first despatched against the rebels with 700 men, the Earl of Warwick, with the Lord Admiral Clinton, followed with 13,000 more, the earl being nominated lieutenant-general of the army. The next year he was constituted Chief Butler of England, and soon afterwards sworn of her j\Iajesty's Privy Council. During this year he was one of the peers who sat in Westminster Hall on the trial and judgment of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, as he did fourteen years after at Fotheringay, on the trial of Mary, Queen of Scotland. The Earl of Warwick married, ist, Anne, daughter and co-heir of William Whorwood, Esq., attorney- general to Henry VIII. ; 2ndly, Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Gilbert Talboys ; and 3rdly, Anne, daughter of Francis, Earl of Bedford; but died without heirs, in 1589, when all his honours became extinct ; the lordship and lands, which he had obtained by grant (part of the inheritance of the old Earls of Warwick), reverted to the crown. Of these the ancient

was something much more noble in naming these fine animals from his own family, or that of friends from whom he had purchased them, than the contemptible and nonsensical manner of denominating race-horses at present." — " Hist. Craven," ed. 1878.

go THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Cook IT.

park of Wedgenock was granted, in 1601, by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Fluke Greville, to whom, in four years afterwards, James I. likewise granted the Castle of Warwick with the gardens and dependencies. This Sir Fluke Greville was descended through his grandmother, Elizabeth, one of the daughters and co-heirs of Lord Beau champ, of Powyk, from the old Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick ; and from him have sprung the existing Earls of Brooke and Warwick.

^9 Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, K.G., succeeded his father, William Herbert, the ist Earl, on March 17, 1569-70. He married, 1st, Catherine, daughter of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, from whom he was divorced ; 2ndly, Catherine, daughter of George, Earl of Shrewsbury, but by that lady had no issue ; and Srdly, Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Sydney, K.G., by whom he had two sons and a daughter. He died January 19, 1600-1, and w^as succeeded by his eldest son, Wilham, 3rd Earl, K.G., chancellor of the university of Oxford, and lord-chamberlain of the household, who married Mary, daughter of Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury, and co-heir to the Baronies of Talbot, Strange, Blackmere, and Furnival, but died without surviving issue, April 10, 1630, when the honours of his family devolved upon his brother Philip, 4th Earl of Pembroke and ist Earl of Montgomery.

2" Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who was a prominent patron of the Turf and staunch supporter of the old Sarum meetings, was born on the loth of November, 1567, at Netherwood, his father's seat in Herefordshire. He was educated at Cambridge, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1583, but soon after retired to his villa venatica, Lampsie, in South Wales, where he spent some time, and became so enamoured with his rural retreat that he was with difficulty prevailed on to quit it. The earl was an expert horseman, saw service abroad, distinguished himself at the battle of Sutphen, fought in 1586, and soon after his return to England was made Master of the Horse. Two years later we find

Book II.] THE EARL OF ESSEX. 91

him general in command of the horse, for the defence of the kingdom against the Spanish invasion. When the Armada was dispersed, and the camp at Tilbury broken up, the Earl of Essex was created K.G., and was henceforth considered the queen's favourite. He subsequently filled many important positions, including that of Earl Marshal of England, Lord Deputy of Ireland, and Chancellor of the University of Cam- bridge. His ultimate fate is so notorious an event in history that it is unnecessary to dwell at any length upon it here. By his marriage with Frances, the widow of his friend Sir Philip Sidney, he first excited the jealousy and resentment of Queen Elizabeth, against whom he subsequently conspired and made a fruitless effort at insurrection, was taken prisoner, committed to the Tower, and thence, after having been con- victed by his peers of high treason, was, under romantic cir- cumstances, beheaded on the 25th of February, 1600. The legend of the ring, in connection with the execution of the Earl of Essex, which recent investigation has confirmed, was to the following purport : — Elizabeth, in the height of her passion for the Earl of Essex, gave him a ring, which he was enjoined to cherish ; and that whatever offence he should commit, she would pardon him when he should return that pledge. When he was condemned, she expected to receive from him the ring, and would have granted him his pardon according to her promise. The earl, finding himself in the last extremity, applied to Admiral Howard's lady, who was his relation, and desired her, by a person she could trust, to deliver the ring into the queen's own hands. But her husband, who was one of the earl's greatest enemies, and to whom she told this imprudently, would not suffer her to acquit herself of the commission ; so that the queen consented to the earl's death, being full of indignation against so proud and haughty a spirit, who chose rather to die than to implore her mercy. She, however, ordered a magnificent scaffold to be erected for the execution ; the cost and particulars of which are still extant.* Some time after the admiral's lady fell ill, and

* L.T.R. Works and Buildings, M.S., P.R.O.

92 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book IL

being given over by her physicians, she sent word to the queen that she had a secret of great consequence to divulge before she died. The queen came to her bedside ; and having ordered all her attendants to withdraw, Lady Howard re- turned her Majesty, but too late, that ring from the Earl of Essex, praying to be excused for not having returned it sooner, since her husband had prevented her. The queen retired immediately, overwhelmed with the utmost grief; she sighed continually for a fortnight, without taking any nourish- ment, lying in bed entirely dressed, and getting up a hundred times a night. At last she died with hunger and with grief, because she had consented to the death of a lover who had applied to her, under such untoward circumstances, for mercy. Such was the end of this most remarkable Turfite of the age.

^^ Giles Burges (or Brydges), 3rd Baron Chandos — son of Edmund the 2nd Baron and Dorothy, fifth daughter and eventually co-heir of Edmund, Lord Bray — succeeded to the family honours and estates in Gloucestershire, on the death of his father, September 11, 1573. He married Lady Frances Clinton, daughter of Edward, ist Earl of Lincoln, by whom he had two daughters, Elizabeth, who married Sir John Kennedy, and Catherine, who married Francis, Lord Russell, of Thornhaugh, afterwards Earl of Bedford. Those ladies were his heirs. He died February 21, 1593-4, and was suc- ceeded in the peerage by his brother William, the 4th baron, who died in 1602.

22 The Lords Thomas and William Howard above mentioned were, respectively, the elder and the second sons of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, K.G., by his second marriage with Margaret, daughter and heir of Thomas, Lord Audlcy of Walden, of whom TllOMAS succeeded to the Barony of Walden, in the right of his mother, and was after- wards created Earl of Suffolk ; William (" Belted Will ") was restored in blood, by Act of Parliament, in 1603. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, and sister and co-heir of George, Lord Dacre of Gillesland, and became in her right,

Book II.] S/R WALTER HUNGERFORD. 93

proprietor of Naworth Castle, in Cumberland, the ancient seat of the Dacre family. He also acquired by this alliance Hinderskelle, the site of Castle Howard. Their father, Thomas, 4th Duke of Norfolk, shared the fate of their dis- tinguished grandfather, for, being attainted of high treason for his communication with Mary, Queen of Scots, he was beheaded in 1572, when all his honours became forfeited.*

'^ Sir Walter Hungerford, Knight, of Farley Castle, — eldest son of Walter Hungerford, Baron Hungerford, of Heytesbury, and Jane, daughter of Lord Zouche, of Harring- worth, which nobleman was beheaded on Tower Hill with Cromwell, Earl of Essex, July 28, 1541, when this barony expired — obtained from Queen Mary a reversal of the at- tainder imposed upon his father in the reign of Henry VHL, save as to the enjoyment of the peerage. Sir Walter married, 1st, Anne Basset, and 2ndly, Anne, daughter of Sir William Dormer, Knight, and had issue one son (who died without heirs) and three daughters. Sir Walter Hungerford, unlike many of his ancestors, eschewed political strife and court in- trigue, and devoted his life principally to rural affairs and field sports. The motto affixed to his portrait, with its append- ages, demonstrates the man and his habits. He proclaims himself Amicis Amicissimus — a most endearing expression ! The motto alludes most forcibly to the fatal and ambitious pursuits of his ancestors ; and the hooded hawk perched on his glove in one picture, and the other curious portraiture of the same personage on horseback, points him out as a lover of the country and the champion of rural amusements. The latter picture bears the following inscription : — " S'' W^alter Hungerforde knight had in quene Elizabeths tyme the seconde of her raine for fouer yere to gether a baye horse a blacke greyhounde a leveratt his offer was for fouer yeare to gether to all Eynglande not a boue his betters he that shoulde showe the best horse for a man of armes a greyhounde for a hare a haucke for the ryver to wine HI hundred poundes that was

* See Book vi., sub.-tit. Langwathby, 1612.

94 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

a hunclciy the poundcs a pcsc also he had a gerfalcon for the heme in her majcstys tyme which he kept XVIII yere and offered the lyke to flye for a hundred pounde and were refused for all."

On the branch of the family settled at Black Bourton, county Oxford, Farley Castle eventually devolved, and was one of the great possessions of Sir Edward Hungerford, Knight of the Bath, surnamed "the Spendthrift," by whose boundless extravagance the family property, immense though it was, was utterly destroyed. He died in 171 1, having had a son, Edward, who predeceased his father, without surviving issue. Thus terminated this remarkable family, notable for its great fortune and bad luck — if the paradox be admissible. Two branches of the Hungerford family, however, are still settled in Ireland.*

-^ Sir John Danvers, Knight, of Dauntscy, Wiltshire, acquired by his marriage with the Hon. Elizabeth Nevil, fourth daughter of John Nevil, last Lord Latimer of that surname, the ancient castle of Danby, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. By this lady he had three sons and two daughters. His second son and heir. Sir Henry Danvers, Knight, was elevated to the peerage July 27, 1603, as Baron Danvers, of Dauntsey, county Wilts, and on the accession of Charles I., created Earl of Danby, and soon after chosen a Knight of the Garter. Dying January 20, 1643, a bachelor and without heirs, all these honours became extinct.

^^ Sir Thomas Wroughton died In June, 1597. His eldest daughter, Dorothy, married, ist. Sir Henry Unton, Queen Elizabeth's ambassador at the court of France, temp. July 24,

* Some short time since a most interesting manuscript collection of memoirs of the Hungerford family was sold by auction in London. It. realized a high price, and, we believe, was purchased for the Astor Library, in New York City. Recently, all our good rural manuscripts have been bought up by enterprising American and Colonial collectors . The absence of such uniciue documents render the elucidation of domestic history all the more difficult, in many cases a hopeless task !

1600.] DONCASTER.

95

1591— jLine 7, 1592; and 2ndly, Sir George Shcrly, Bart., ancestor of the Earls Ferrers.

'^^ Sir William Courtenay, Knight, only son and heir of Sir William Courtenay and Elizabeth, daughter of John Powlet, Marquis of Winchester, succeeded his father, who was killed at the storming of St. Quintin, in 1557. This notable Turfite was High Sheriff of Devonshire in 1581, and four years later became one of the undertakers to send over settlers for the better planting of Ireland, and thus laid the foundation of the prodigious estates in that kingdom which his descendants until recently enjoyed. Sir William married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry, Earl of Rutland, and, dying in 1630, was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Francis Courtenay, Esq., of Powderham Castle, county Devon.

-^ Sir Matiiew Arundell, of Wardour — son of Sir Thomas Arundell and Margaret, daughter and co-heir of Lord Edmund Howard, third son of Thomas, Duke of Nor- folk, and sister of Catherine, fifth wife of Henry VHI. — married Margaret, daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby, Knight, of Wollaton, county Nottingham. Sir Matthew died in 1598, and was succeeded by his elder son, created Baron Arundell of Wardour, May 4, 1605.

'■^^ Of this gentleman we know nothing beyond the fact of his being a member of the Privy Council and a patron of the Turf in those days.

" The commencement of horse-racing at Doncaster may be ascribed to the sixteenth century ; there cer- tainly was a race-course In 1600, for on the Doncaster. 2ncl of May of that year an order v^^as made ^^^' by the Corporation, ' That whereas Hugh Wyrrall, gentleman, had caused a stoope to be sett on Doncaster More at the west end of the horse race, yt Mr. Maior,

96 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

Mr. Huscroft, and Mr. Levett maye lykewise sett a workman to cutt down or digg upp the sayd stoope.' "

" A race course on ' Wheatlay More ' is noticed in old deeds [dated] a.d. 1600." — Doncaster Races. Hist. Notices, etc., by William Sheardown, Esq., J. P.

"April 6, 1602. This day there was a race at Sapley neere huntingdon : invented by the gents of Huntingdon, that Country : At this Mr. Oliuer Cromwell's 1602. horse won the syluer bell : And Mr. Crom- well had the glory of the day. Mr. Hynd came be- hinde." — Diary, anonymous, Had. MS. 5353, fo. 36^/.

This diary was printed by the Camden Society in 1868. It is edited by Mr. John Bruce, by whom it is attributed to "John Manningham, of the Middle Temple, and of Bradbourne, Kent, Barrister-at-law, 1602, 1603." ^'^^- Bruce, in his notes on the above extract, says, " This ' Mr. OHver Cromwell ' was in truth, according to other writers who hive mentioned him. Sir Oliver Cromwell, stated to have been knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1598, created K.B. at the coronation of King James, and uncle to his namesake the future Protector. An ancestor of his in the reign of Henry VIII. is described by Mr. Carlyle as ' a vehement, swift-riding man" (Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, i. 42, ed. 1846). Sir Oliver seems to have inherited some of the ancestral quali- ties."— p. 49.

Huntingdonshire, says Leland {temp. Henry viii.), "in old time, was much more woody than it is now, and the dere rcsortid to the fcnnes : it is ful long sins it was deforested." Camden corroborates this, and states, that " the inhabitants say it was once covered with woods, and it appears to have been a forest till Henry II., in the beginning of his reign, disafforested the whole, as set forth by an old perambulation, ' except Waybridge, Sapple \(]ua; Sapley above], and Herthei/ which were the lords' woods and remain forest."

Book II.] S/J^ OLIVER CROMWELL. 97

" Below the high ground to the south-westward of the entrenchments, is an extensive and fertile meadow, called Portsholm, which Camden describes as ' the most fresh and beautiful that the sun ever shone upon.' This meadow is partly surrounded by the Ouse river ; and here the Hun- tingdon Races are held ; a small part of it, which belonged to the Protector Cromwell, and now to the Earl of Sandwich, still bears the appellation of Cromwell's Acres." — " The Beauties of England and Wales," by Edward Wedlake Brayley. London, 1808, vol. vii., p. 348,

Sir Oliver Cromwell " had the felicity to entertain one, if not two, of the English monarchs. King James I. he cer- tainly did several times, and probably King Charles I., but the most memorable visit was paid to him by the former during his progress from Edinburgh to London, on the 27th April, 1603. Whilst the king was at Hinchinbrook, he received the heads of the University of Cambridge in their robes, to congratulate him upon his succession to the English throne, which they did in a long Latin oration. His Majesty continued with Sir Oliver until he had breakfasted on the 29th, and on his leaving Hinchinbrook, expressed his sense of the obligations he had received from him, and from his lady. To the former, he said, at parting, as they passed through the court, in his broad Scotch manner, ' Morry, mon, thou hast treated me better than any one since I left Edinboro.' Among the presents given by Sir Oliver to the king on this occasion were, 'a large elegant wrought cup of gold, goodly horses, deep-mouthed hounds, divers hawks of excellent wing, and, at the remove, he gave fifty pounds among the principal officers." During the civil war, Sir Oliver adhered to the royal cause, when all his property was sequestrated, but owing to his close relationship to the Protector, the total wreck of his fortune was averted. He died in August, 1655, at the great age of ninety-three." — Noble's " Cromwells," vol. i., p. 43.

It appears a hunting match or steeplechase, made at New- market between Lord Haddington and Lord Sheffield, took place at Huntingdon in November, 1607.

VOL. I. H

98 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

" In the reign of Queen Elizabeth," says Mr.

Clarkson, " racing was carried on to such an excess as

to injure the fortunes of many individuals,

Richmond -' _ ^

(Yorkshire), private matches being then made between

gentlemen, who were generally their own

jockeys and tryers." * He adds that the earliest account

of races at Richmond " may be gathered from an entry

in 1576, in the Corporation Coucher, of a Cup for the

Horse- Race being in the possession of the Aldermen,"

Horse-racing undoubtedly flourished at Carlisle in

the reign of Elizabeth, where the Corporation gave

Carlisle. silver bells to be run for. Some of these

c. 1599. interesting trophies are still preserved by the

Corporation in their town hall. One measures two and

a quarter inches in diameter, is of silver gilt, and has

on it —

The sweetest hers this bell to tak, For mi Ladi Dakers sake.

This Lady Dacre was probably Elizabeth, wife of Sir William Dacre, Governor of Carlisle, temp. Elizabeth,

Another bell, which is smaller than the one above mentioned, is of silver and has on it —

H, B., 1599, M.C.,

the initials probably meaning, " Henry Baines, Mayor of Carlisle." f

Owing to the following curious incident we learn that

* "The History and Antiquities of Richmond, in the County of York," by Christopher Clarkson, F.S.A.

t The privileges or liberties of the Corporation of Carlisle (the Court of Record) extended, temp. Elizabeth, to and included jurisdiction to the full extent of the river Eden, including the lands and the whole of the race-course, except that part of it which is in the parish of Stanwix.

Book II.] THE TURF IN SCOTLAND. 99

injune, I599,the Turf engaged the attention of James VI. and other persons of distinction across the Scotland, border at this time. George Fenner, writing ^^^^• from the court at London to a friend at Venice, tells him, " There is much private talk in court and city about a Scottish accident, which seems to trouble the State. An Englishman, called Ashton, having been employed by that l^ing (as it is thought) secretly in Spain, Rome, and other places, some here in authority, wishing to understand the particulars, and not finding other means, plotted with the governor of Berwick and Sir William Bowes, our ambassador there, to bring him unto England, which was lately thus performed. The king, with many of his nobles, was going to a horse- race, and this Ashton preparing to go also, was invited by our ambassador's secretary to go with him in the coach. He accepted, and they soon turned the coach another way, and came to a place where some light horsemen from Berwick met them, and conducted them to Berwick, where the man was committed to prison. When the king heard of it, he took it so ill that he commanded our ambassador to keep his house, and has placed a guard about him, vowing he shall have the same treatment there, as the other has here. It is thought we shall pacify the king by money, or else by fair means win the man to reveal what he knows, and then dismiss him, as though nothing had been done.*

In 1585 Queen Elizabeth sent Mr. Edw. Wotton to the young king with a present of some " noble

* State Papers, Dom., Eliz., vol. 271, ZZ, MS., P.R.O.

loo THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

horses and hounds." The venatic ambassador himself " was gay, well-bred, and entertaining ; he excelled in all the exercises for which James had a passion, and amused the king by relating the adventures which he had met with, and the observations he had made during- a lonsf residence in foreio;n countries ; but under the veil of these superficial qualities, he concealed a dangerous and intriguing spirit." *

" Horse-racing was early practised as a popular

amusement in Scotland. In 1552, there was an

c. Elizabeth, arrangement for an annual horse-race at

efseg. Haddinotou, the prize beino-, as usual, a

Scotland. . . .

1522-1608. silver bell. Early in the reign of James VI., Peebles there were races at both Peebles and Dum- Dumfries. f^ies. The Peebles race accustomed to take place on Beltane-day, the ist of May ; it was the chief surviving part of the festivities which had from an early period distinguished the day and place, and which were celebrated in the old poem of Peebles to the Play.

The great difficulty attending such popular festivities arose from the tendency of the people to mark them with bloodshed. Men assembled there from different parts of the country, each having, of course, his peculiar enmities, and the object of similar enmities in his turn ; and when they met, and had somewhat inflamed themselves with liquor, it was scarcely avoidable that mutual provocations should be given, leading to con- flicts with deadly weapons. So great reason was there now (1608) for fearing a sanguinary scene at Peebles,

* Robertson, sub anno.

Book IL] THE BORDER MEETINGS. loi

that the lords of council thought proper to issue a proclamation forbidding the race to take place." — ■ " Domestic Annals of Scotland," vol. i., p. 410.

" Towards the end of this year the Regent Morton was at Dumfries, holding justice-courts for the punish- ment of the Borderers. ' Many were pun- Scotland ished by their purses rather than their lives. 1575.

■R /r 1 r T- 1 1 1-1 ^^^ Border

Many gentlemen 01 bngland came thither Meetings: to behold the Regent's court, where there ^"^"^^^ ^^^•^'• was great provocation made for the running of horses. By chance my Lord Hamilton had there a horse sae weel bridled and sae speedy, that although he was of a meaner stature than other horses that essayit their speed, he overran them all a great way upon Solway Sands, whereby he obtained great praise both of England and Scotland at that time' (Historie of King James the Sext)." — " Domestic Annals of Scotland," by Robert Chambers, vol. i., p. 103.

Among the early fathers of the Turf in Scotland, it seems that David Home of Wedderburn, who died in 1574, was conspicuous among his sporting contemporaries. He was a gentleman of good status in Berwickshire, and father of the David Home of Godscroft, to whom Scottish literature owes the " History of the House of Douglas." The son has left us a portraiture of the father, which, even when we make a good allowance for filial partiality, must be held as showing that such society in the seventeenth century was not without estimable mem- bers. "He died in the fiftieth year of his age, of a consumption, being the first (as is said) of his family

I02 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II.

who had died a natural death — all the rest having lost their lives in defence of their country."

It is further stated that David Home was a man remarkable for piety, probity, candour, and integrity ; but if the assertion be correct, it is difficult to reconcile some of the remarkable coups effected by him on the Turf, with the qualifications attributed to him above. Had the Jockey Club existed in those days he would probably be " warned off," even though he had the Psalms " always in his mouth."

David is described as being swift of foot, and fond of foot-races, while he excelled in the mysteries of the Turf. " He collected a number of the swiftest horses both from the north of Scotland and from England, by the assistance of one Graeme, recommended to him by his brother-in-law, Lochinvar. He generally had eight or more of that kind, so that the prize was seldom won by any but those of his family. ... He was so great a master of the art of riding, that he