The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-19 00:00:00

ACCOUNT OF THE ROYAL STUD.

As very little seems to be known by the public generally
on the subject of the Royal Stud at Hampton.court, which
has been advertised for sale by Messrs. Tattersall on the
25th of October next, and as some erroneous opinions ap-
pear to have been held as to the real proprietorship of the
horses, &c., of which it consists, it may not be uninterest-
ing to give some account of the facts. The stud at H. in?...
ton-court, which is a racing stud, is not national property,
and does not belong to the King or Queen of England as
attached to the kingly office. It was the private property
of his late Majesty William IV., who derived it from his
predecessor either by bequest or purchase, and increased it
by purchases or by gifts from other quarters. It is, of
course, at present subject to such dispositions as he thought
proper to make of it in his lifetime, and will pass to his
representatives (not in his public capacity), in the same
manner as any other private and personal property of
which he died possessed. The stud at Hampton-court
is purely a racing stud ; it does not contain any car-
riage horses or horses for state occasions, and is not a heir-
loom of the Crown. It appears from works written ors
the subjects of Newmarket, racing, &c., that in the end
of Charles the First's reign races were ran in Hyde-
park as well as at Newmarket ; that during the Protec-
torate of Cromwell the sport met with no encouragement
whatever ; but that it was revived soon after the Restora-
tion, and much encouraged by Charles 11., who formed a
racecourse at Datchet. A house was also erected with
suitable convenience for Charles 11. at Newmarket, where
some parts of it arc still in existence. William 111. added
to the plates which his sporting predecessor hzd esta-
blished, and Queen Anne followed his example. In the
reign of George I. some alterations were made as to 1051.
being given instead of plates, and so forth, but the sport
was still encouraged. In the reign of George 11. horse-
racing assumed a more decidedly national character, and
several Acts of Parliament were passed to prevent racing
from becoming a mere gambling speculation, and enacting
such provisions as should, as far as the Legislature could
interfere, make it subservient to the purpose of securing a
good breed of horses for the benefit cf the nation. The
celebrated Duke of Cumberland, called the Fat Duke of
Cumberland, in more recent times became a great patron
of the turf, and under his auspices the races at Ascot-heath
were brought to great perfection. The Royal stud was
then kept at Cumberland-lodge, in Windsor Forest, where
it remained during the reign of George 111. The stud at
Cumberland-lodge, however, could not be called a racing stud;
it contained a very miscellaneous collection of stallions and
mares. George 111., though he encouraged racing so far
as to attend regularly at Ascot-heath, had little or no
connexion with the turf. His successor and the late Duke
of York were, as everybody knows, closely connected
with racing, and actively engaged in all its departments for
many years. It was in the reign of George IV. that the
stud now at Hampton-court was established ; and such
stock as was proper to be placed in a racing stud, were by
his command brought thither from ‘Vindsor Forest. Seve-
ral of the mares now in the stud were the property of the
late Duke of York, of which George IV., on the death of
his brother, became the owner, and the present very intel-
ligent and respectable stud-groom, Mr. Worley, was at the
head of the Duke of York's stud for many years. His late
Majesty William IV., in his capacity, when Duke of Cla-
rence, of ranger of Bushy-park, necessarily came in con-
tact with the racing establishment, which is in fact on the
territorial domain over which the rangership extends, and
this circumstance appears to have given him his first affec-
tion for the favourites of his brothers, and his first insight
into anything connected with racing and the breeding of
racers, it being well known that, in his early life, his pur-
suits were quite unconnected with sporting. When William
IV., however, clam to the throne, he appears, with that
strong good sense by which he was always directed, to
have seen the almost national importance of giving encou-
ragement to a sport which had become a national cha-
ractertstie, and by which, indirectly, a breed of horses
had been created which by various crosses, and through
various generations, had had the effect of rendering the
British cavalry superior to any other cavalry in the world,
and which, within a few years, had turned the attention
of many agriculturists, noblemen, and gentlemen of landed
property to the further breeding of horses, and created
an important and lucrative branch of commerce with
foreign nations. In consequence of this, the greatest
attention was paid to the arrangements and management
of the stud at Hampton-court, which, under the imme-
diate superintendence of Colonel Wemyss, Equerry to
the late King, and the subordinate experience and skill of
Mr. Worley, whose name has already been mentioned, has
flourished and increased in reputation. Indeed, nothing can
be more admirable than the manner in which the whole
has been conducted, whether in respect to the details of
the arrangement of the various stables and paddocks,
the care bestowed upon the rearing of the stock, the
regulations with regard to the disposal of them, or the
economy with which the expenses have been restrained
without anything approaching to penuriousness or want of
judicious liberality. His late Majesty, who seems to have
walked through the paddocks with the same vigilance with
which when a captain in the navy he trod the quarter-deck
of a man-of-war, was a frequent visitor at Hampton-court,
and on these occasions he directed his attention to the
most minute disarrangement of what he considered very
properly to be a matter of importance. It has been said,
and very truly, that "he had a terrible quick eye to any
thing wrong, and if there were a rail or pale out of place
in the fence, he was sure to see it." This vigilance has
been most effective in preventing accidents to the colts and
fillies, and to infusing through all persons employed in the
establishment an increased zeal and circumspection. It
may be as well at once to describe the locality occupied by
the stud. It is situated on the right and left of the road
loathing from Hampton-court to Kingston, at about a
quarter of a mile beyond the great entrance-gate of Bushy-
park, on the way to Kingston. The whole ground plot
contains 131 acres. The grass is exceedingly good, being hi
many places full of natural clover, and having none of the
sourness which is so offensive and so detrimental tO horses.
On the right hand side of the road the paddocks are sheltered
by very lofty and shady trees, and are consequently much
The stmiaael:niptd:arilfcsdoeaapecl
warmer than those on the daft hand, which have not the
same advantage, The ground is divided into a great klUril•
her of distinct paddocks, varying in dimensions from two to
five acres each. Every one of these paddocks is divided
from the others by high palings and by railings, and in every
one is a simple but excellently contrived covered shed or
box for the tenant or tenants of the paddocks. The greatest
o a t: attentionihneg m.
zoolo,tuannsogrb
oe been
o bestowedopenogoonf thebe lgoactkess,
and bolts,
bars, &ct .0, ar
pre-
ventd
o any accidents to the young stock,. all which minutiae
too a. person not conversant with the great difficulty in
sock, and the prevention of the endless
mis-
haps which a'aend the slightest inattention to such things,
tsrkeseo,nnnibooeyt
occasionst, saaurf suffered erreeeaedteoefitfroe rundebedegi
trn
to the
eat thoeefxl aerhirrbegeetliesrseteyidsn:
attached
ier
hrtruhee:-
aPParen,tl.Y of little moment, are of the greatest importance.
e
t:loo:oaelreent.sie. They are exceedingly tame and gentle, and no
sooner does Mr. Worley enter the paddock than the
possessors of it run up to him, or obey his call to them )
with the docility of is spaniel. By command of his

late Majesty, no stock (with the exception of stallions
and brood mares) are kept in the esiablisilinent as
Royal property after a twelvemonth old, but colts
6: fiilics piirchased from the Roy.:l stud are allowed to
remaio, payment ne;iiti: tlieirytbsyquelit care and
keep. The sale of the produce of the Roya: 0.4"
annually at Tattgroairs, on the Monday preceding the run-
elites for tile Pcrily at Epsoria. At those sales the stock
dittidys iti3ill[ilut4.l a high and ftt,Al'id good PrigQ!,
varying from 5001. to 40/. for each edit or lots
were purchased last year for America. The ArnefiCani; its
all breeders know, 41'0 Maloing oreat progress in the rearing
of the best horses, and are already id fidinclsien of the two
celobl'ated lidrses Glencoe and Rowton, and or seVef..ll
others of well-knotiiti eitiedtiefl novel many other horses of
the Royal stud have been purchased dr..oents from the
Continental eountrics. Within these few weeks foreign"
front alitiOst all park of the Continent have been at Hamp-
ton-court to view the stud, anti it not ,inlikely, without
donsicleteble cffirt be made at the approaching'
English bidders, that many of the best lots may find their
way to the establishments of Chantilly or Mention, at which
last-named place so many English racers are to be found.
The Royal stud at the present moment contains four stal-
lions and 42 brood mares, besides foals. They are all of
them beautiful animals, and most of them of the highest
order of blood, and such as are fitting to constitute the
eacction of the Monarch of a people who are pre-emi-
nent in the breeding and rearing of the noblest animal in
the creation.