(_Concluded from page 331._)
"At this period[7] there were many capital thorough bred horses in
England, the most celebrated of which were the famed Arabians Darley and
Godolphin, from which the best horses have been traced for nearly a
century. They produced stock of vast size, bone and substance; and were,
at the same time, endowed with such extraordinary, and before unheard
of, powers of speed, as to render it probable that some of them have
reached nature's goal, or ultimate point of perfection.
[7] About the fifteenth year of the reign of George II.
"From the former of these horses descended Flying Childers. He is said
to have never run a race, except at Newmarket, where he beat, with ease,
the best horses of his time.
"In October, 1722, he beat Lord Drogheda's Chaunter, each carrying ten
stone, over a six mile course, for 1,000 guineas. At six years of age,
he ran a race, carrying 9 stone 2lbs. against Almanzor and Brown Betty,
over the round course at Newmarket, three miles six furlongs, and
ninety-three yards, in six minutes and forty seconds! to perform which,
he must have moved eighty-two feet and a half in a second of time, or at
the rate of nearly one mile in a minute.
"This is the greatest speed yet known of a horse, many have approached,
but not equalled it.
"To continue the list of celebrated race horses would extend this
article (already it is feared too long) beyond our limits. We will
therefore close it with the following account of Eclipse, a horse whom
fame ranks second in the list, and whose history is more closely
connected with Epsom than those already described.
"Eclipse was first the property of His Royal Highness the Duke of
Cumberland, and was foaled during the great eclipse in 1764, from which
he received his name. He was a chestnut horse, and at the death of his
royal master was purchased by Mr. Wildman, who subsequently sold a
moiety, and then the whole of his interest in him, to Colonel O'Kelly,
who resided at Clay-hill, Epsom.
"Mr. Wildman is said to have been in some degree aware of the worth of
this colt, when a yearling, and to have taken the following measures in
order to make sure of him. When he arrived at the place of sale, Mr.
Wildman produced his watch, and insisted that the auction had commenced
before the hour announced in the advertisements, and that the lots sold
should be put up again. In order, however, to prevent a dispute, it was
agreed by the auctioneer and company that Mr. Wildman should have his
choice of any particular lot; by which he secured Eclipse at the
moderate price of 70 or 75 guineas.
"Mr. Lawrence remarks, that previously to Eclipse's running for the
King's plate at Winchester, in 1769, Mr. Wildman sold the moiety of him
to Colonel O'Kelly for 650 guineas, and that O'Kelly subsequently bought
the other moiety for 1,100 guineas.
"Eclipse was withheld from the course till he was five years of age, and
was first tried at Epsom. He had considerable length of waist, and stood
over a large space of ground, in which particular he was an opposite
form to the flying Childers, a short-backed, compact horse, whose reach
lay in his lower limbs; but, from the shape of his body, we are inclined
to believe that Eclipse would have beaten Childers in a race over a mile
course with equal weights.
"He once ran four miles in eight minutes, carrying twelve stone, and
with this weight Eclipse won eleven King's plates. He was never beaten,
never had a whip flourished over him, or felt the tickling of a spur;
nor was he ever for a moment distressed by the speed or rate of a
competitor; out-footing, out-striding, and out-lasting, (says Mr.
Lawrence) every horse which started against him.
"Colonel O'Kelly prized this horse so highly, and treated him with so
much kindness, that upon his removal from Clay-hill to Cannons, he had a
carriage built for conveying Eclipse to his new abode, his feet being,
at the close of his life, too tender for walking. The carriage was
something like a covered wagon, but not so wide, and was drawn by two
horses. Eclipse stood in the carriage with his head out of a window,
made for that purpose, and in this situation many of the inhabitants saw
him pass through the town, from one of whom we received our information.
This celebrated racer died in February 1789, aged twenty-five years.
"When the races on Epsom Downs were first held periodically, we have not
been able to trace with accuracy; but we find that from the year 1730,
they have been annually held in the months of May or June, and about six
weeks previously to which, the hunter's stakes are occasionally run for
on the Epsom race course, at one of which, in 1730, the famous horse,
Madcap, won the prize, and proved the best plate horse in England.
"The races were for a long period held twice in every year, Spring and
Autumn; it was then customary to commence the races at eleven o'clock in
the forenoon, and after the first or second heat, the company usually
returned into the town to dinner. In the afternoon they again assembled
on the downs, and the races for the day were then finished.
"This arrangement has been long discontinued, and the races are now
annually held on the downs, adjoining the town, on the Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday immediately preceding Whitsuntide, except when
Easter Monday happens in March; in which case the races are held a
fortnight later than usual, in pursuance of certain regulations agreed
upon for holding the principal races in the kingdom.
"This has been the practice here since the celebrated Derby and Oaks
Stakes were first established at Epsom, the former in 1780, and the
latter in 1779.[8]
[8] A second meeting is held in the autumn.
"Several members of the royal family, and most of the nobility attend
these races; and, if the weather be fine, there are seldom less than
60,000 persons assembled here on the Thursday, when the Derby stakes are
contested. Of these the vicious and unprincipled form a tolerable
proportion; nor is it indeed surprising, where 60,000 persons are
assembled to witness a horse race, that these should obtrude themselves,
either with the view of propagating vice, or robbing the bystanders."
We ought to add that the volume is by an inhabitant of Epsom, and the
profits of its sale have been given to the Subscription School in the
town. It is so inaccurately printed, as to make us hope that more
attention will be paid to the typography of the next edition; for
assuredly so interesting a volume, published with so laudable an object
as that of aiding the cause of charity, should extend to more than one
edition.
By the way, there is a nice little anecdote connected with the sign of
the _Queen's Head_ at Epsom,[9] which the editor of this volume would do
well to insert in his next impression. The above sign, (the _original_;
for we fear the board has been repainted,) was executed by Harlow, the
artist of the celebrated picture of the _Trial of Queen Katherine_, or
the _Kemble Family_. The painter, it will be remembered, was a pupil of
the late Sir Thomas Lawrence. He was a young man of consummate vanity,
and having unwarrantably claimed the merit of painting the Newfoundland
dog introduced in Lawrence's portrait of Mrs. Angerstein, the two
artists quarrelled, and Harlow took his resentment as follows:
"He repaired to the Queen's Head at Epsom; where his style of living
having incurred a bill which he could not discharge, he proposed, like
Morland under similar circumstances, to paint a sign-board in
liquidation of his score. This was accepted--he painted both sides: the
one presented a front view of her Majesty, in a sort of clever dashing
caricature of Sir Thomas's style; the other represented the back view of
the Queen's person, as if looking into the sign-board; and underneath
was painted, 'T.L., Greek Street, Soho.' When Sir Thomas met him, he
addressed him with, 'I have seen your additional act of perfidy at
Epsom; and if you were not a scoundrel, I would kick you from one end of
the street to the other.'--'There is some privilege in being a
scoundrel, for the street is very long,' replied Harlow, unabashed, but
moving out of reach of the threatened vengeance. Such is the current
story; but there must be some error either in the facts or their date.
Harlow was but a youth eighteen years old when he left Lawrence, and too
young therefore for a man's resentment; neither had his conduct, a mere
tricky slip, been such as to call forth fierce language in a person
habitually so cautious and guarded as Lawrence. On the other hand, had
Harlow arrived at manhood when it happened, he would not have allowed
the words 'scoundrel' and 'perfidy' to pass with impunity. However all
this may have been; the pupil quarrelled with Lawrence, and resolving to
be master of his own movements in future, commenced working for
himself."[10]
[9] The Queen's Head is situated at the extremity of the town of
Epsom, so that a few race-visiters from London may extend their
journey to that point.
[10] Lives of British Painters. By Allan Cunningham, vol. v.
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