which the of the land were wont to take pride is fully established by the allusions to it that abound in the many legends yet in existence composed in honor of of the lion heart these preserve the names of the and speak of them aa being valued at sums that allowing for the difference in the worth of money quite exceed any prices known in our day the domestic troubles which marked the reign of john and the succession of wars in which we were subsequently engaged probably interrupted the progress of sport materially � at all events we do not find any of our sovereigns giving their countenance to it from richard to the bluff harry henry viii was disposed for manly occupations and of his moral tendencies we speak not we have it on the authority of that he was much disposed to improve the breed thb of horses for he imported firom spain and turkey fortune too enabled daughter to do for our native breed the of the spanish having with many and bred horses their descendants found in the vessels of that fleet which fell into the hands of lord of we now com to her successor james i who must be considered as a founder of legitimate racing in this he introduced the first into england of which we have any knowledge � that purchased by mr and known as the the training which has now reached such perfection was then practised in its various divisions of work and the of stable economy and the weight to be carried for public arranged by authority the at was an established course in one of the being a silver bell of the value of ten pounds or run for in five mile similar were also given at s on at and in whence the popular term bearing the bell no doubt had its origin his unfortunate son i had little opportunity of the social concerns of himself or others in reign however the first races on record at were held and by a similar l to was he borne a prisoner to the forces the civil of the of course was not friendly to the amusements of the turf but though suspended they were hot lost sight of mr place the master to the palace at was hy this for the of enjoying the diversion of hunting � no races having been held upon the heath till the succeeding reign thb s imported the celebrated horse known as the white he was also the owner of some very capital one of which daring the search after property at the restoration he saved from destruction by hiding in a whence she took the name of the coffin mare with the came the days of the regular meetings were established at and other parts of d silver cups and of the value of one hundred pounds were presented as royal gifts and more than all the light of royal favor shone it in shape of charles the and mistress william iii had no taste for and died by a fall from his horse prince george of den mark on the other hand was warmly attached to the turf and promoted its interest by every means in his power we are indebted for many royal plates to his influence with his queen anne george i was no in his reign however the alteration in the royal plates took place by which a sum of one hundred guineas was in their stead shortly after george ii ascended the throne arose a morbid yearning after for the turf some of the acts were mischievous very many were very silly one was good � that no plate or prize of a less value than � should be run under a penalty of � it was during this reign that tiie and were brought into this country � two horses from whom have descended all the most celebrated that adorn the annals of our turf this is the period at which the of our thorough bred horse then was and it is the date whence i think it most convenient to begin my notice of english racing the a notice so confined as this is beset with that few would conceive possible as an instance i will the case of an old and well informed of who some years ago published a history of that place he starts somewhere about the conquest and never for want of materials as he goes on till he comes to the great stumbling block concerning which he shall speak for himself � when the races on downs were first held we have not been able to trace but we find that from the year they have been held in the months of may or june and about six weeks previous to which the hunters are occasionally run for on the race course at one of which in the famous horse won the and proved the best plate horse in england to return however to the reign of g ii though we find little bearing on the business of the turf to be from its records it us to the great forefathers of our thorough blood and one of the most interesting questions ia our domestic natural history � the problem of the seed or origin of the english horse a brief search through the book will convince the that almost without exception our great were and are descendants of the and i use the latter term merely because its now those celebrated animals they were both as has been stated imported in this reign the question that i would here investigate applies equally to each but for the sake of it i will treat it with reference to the latter only that he was a genuine says the book his excellence as a is deemed sufficient proof a little further on we read it is remarkable that 