Читать книгу A Mirror of the Turf - James Glass Bertram - Страница 8

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To Chester must be awarded the merit of having first established regular meetings. Racing sport at that place has been traced back to the year 1511, since which 380 years have elapsed, and the races at Chester still flourish; the theatre of the annual sports being, as at the time indicated, the Rood Dee, which had always been the arena in which the Chester people displayed their powers. It was there where they contested the palm in archery, pedestrianism, wrestling, and similar sports, and also the place where they exhibited their skill in mimic warfare.

Although for nearly a hundred years racing of a kind took place between the walls of the city on one side, and the river on the other, it was not till 1609 that racing at Chester came to be organised in something like the shape of the racing contests of to-day. The first prizes given appear to have been a bell and a bowl, to be run for on St. George's Day; the donor of those gifts was the sheriff of the city, and the trophies were presented with much civic pomp and pretence. Trifling nowadays seem such gifts in the face of the thousands of pounds of added money, and the sideboard pieces of silver and gold which signalise many of the race-meetings of to-day throughout the three kingdoms.

The races held at Chester were originally promoted by the traders who carried on business there, such as the Company of Shoemakers and the Company of Drapers, and were celebrated, of course, on the various annual holidays of the far back times just mentioned. A quaint account of the original races run on the Rood Dee was drawn up in 1595, by "that Reverend man of God, Mr. Robert Rodgers, bachelor of Divinitie, Archdeacon of Chester, parsone of Gooseworth and Prebend in the Cathedral of Chester." This clerical worthy tells us that at Chester "there is held every year three of the most commendable exercises and practices of war-like feates, as running of men on foote, running of horses, and shootinge of the broad arrowe, and the butt shaft in the long bowe, which is done in very few (if in any) citties of England, soe farr as I understand."

The same authority in his notes tells how the saddlers' ball, "profitable for few uses or purposes," being a ball of silk, of the bigness of a bowl, was changed into a silver bell weighing about two ounces, "the which saide silver bell was ordayned to be the reward for that horse, which with speedy runninge, then should rune before all the others." In the notes it is also stated that the shoemakers' footeball was before exchanged into silver gleaves. Without taking up space with particulars which can be obtained in county histories, it may be mentioned, in passing, that horse-racing was undoubtedly looked upon at Chester as a national pastime more than two hundred and seventy years ago. In the pageant for the inauguration of the first great festival of St. George, horses played a distinguished part, the victors in the various races being rewarded with the "cups and bels" provided. It will interest lovers of the turf to learn that the silver bell was of the then value of three shillings and fourpence.

In a "History of Horse-racing," published in 1863, appears the following summary of the early history of the sport at Chester: "In the year 1511, the silver bell of the value of three shillings and fourpence was first run for as a prize; in 1609 or 1610, the bell was converted into silver 'cupps,' the value of which is not stated, and from this date the race was annually run for on the Rood Dee, was then named and henceforth known as 'St. George's Race'; and in 1623 there was another alteration made in the prize run for, as in that year the three cups were changed into 'one faire silver cupp,' of about the value of eight pounds. With regard to the prizes, the silver bell run for in 1511 was apparently an absolute gift to the winner. The cups offered in 1609, however, were only temporary rewards, held by the winners for the space of twelve months, when the holders were under bond to deliver up the cups to be again run for; but they retained the amount in cash of the value of the cups as subscribed for by those who ran horses for the prize, and which was a condition of the race. But this again was altered in 1623, when the prize was once more to be held 'freely for ever by the winner.'"

Various alterations were from time to time made in the value of the Rood Dee prizes; in 1629, the city companies contributed to St. George's Race, to make up a certain sum of money; in the year 1640, the sheriffs contributed a piece of plate of the value of £13 6s. 8d. to be run for on Easter Tuesday, in place of a breakfast of calves' heads and bacon, which it had previously been the custom for the two sheriffs to shoot for on Easter Monday. In these early days of the pastime of horse-racing, there was only one day in which a race took place, one race only being run, and occasionally there was no lack of excitement; in 1665, for instance, there was a "row," because "the High Sheriff borrowed a Barbary horse of Sir Thomas Middleton, which won him the plate; and, being master of the race, he would not suffer the horses of Master Massey of Paddington, and of Sir Philip Egerton of Dalton, to run, because they came the day after the time prefixed for the horses to be brought and kept in the city; which thing caused all the gentry to relinquish the races ever since."

Having established Chester's pride of place in the chronology of the turf, the history of horse-racing as then carried on need scarcely be further alluded to, except to show how gradual was the change from the meagre sport of 1665 to the prolific pastime of the present period. In 1745, Chester races, we learn, occupied four days, but only one race took place each day; a case of linked sweetness long drawn out. During the year just named, the four prizes contended for were the St. George's Purse, of the value of £50, for which there was a field of nine horses; the City's Golden Cup of £60, five starters; the Contribution Plate of 50 gs., for which four horses ran.

Lloyd's Evening Post of 21st March, 1780, gives the worth and conditions of the chief race as then run, which are as follows: "On Thursday, the 4th May, the Annual City Plate, valued £30, with a purse of £20, given by the Corporation, for five, six-year-olds, and aged horses; five-year-olds to carry 8st. 2lb., six-year-olds, 8st. 11lb., and aged, 9st. 5lb., mares to be allowed 3lb.; the best of three four-mile heats. To pay five shillings to the clerk of the course, and three guineas of entrance." The races decided at Chester continued to multiply, as time went on, till the institution of the race for the Tradesman's Cup, in 1824.