horses will agree that in life a man who can disturb a fly, apart from actually hitting it, with the point of his lash, is not an unhandy whip; for whoever can give

one of his team a reminder on the exact spot he wishes to can usually drive with his reins.

On

the other hand, it

by no means fol

lows that a coachman who can turn a difficult corner with leaders that run well up to their bits, is able to neatly use his whip over hot wheelers and jibbing leaders. The famous Newmarket Challenge Whip, to which passing reference was made on a previous page, was originally the

THE NEWMARKET CHALLENGE WHIP

property of Thomas Lennard, Lord Dacre,

whose arms are engraved upon it. Lord Dacre was created Earl of Sussex in 1674 by Charles II.; this young gentleman held some appointment at court, and, "going the pace after the fashion of his age, lost his money and part of his estates by gambling. It is believed that he gave the whip as a trophy to be run for at Newmarket; he died in 1715, and the first recorded race for the "Challenge Whip" came off in 1756, when Mr. Fenwick challenged, naming Matchem by Cade, and easily won from Mr. Bowles' Trajan. In 1764 H.R.H. the Duke of Cumberland won it with Dumplin.

Some of the best horses of their time have run for the Whip; in 1770 Gimcrack won it, beating Pilgrim; in 1775 Sweet William won, beating Transit; in 1777 Lord Grosvenor, the holder, was challenged by the owner of Shark against Mambrino, but Lord Grosvenor preferred to pay 100 guineas forfeit and keep the trophy: in 1778 Shark beat Dorimant, and in 1781 Lord Grosvenor challenged for the Whip, naming Pot-8-os, but his challenge was not taken up. Pot-8-os and Dungannon won it in 1783 and 1786 respectively. Thormanby, winner of the Derby in 1860, is one of the more modern winners of the trophy. In 1895 Prince Soltykoff won with Lorikeet, beating Glengall by six lengths: in the following year, the prince not defending, Lord Derby won with Dingle Bay, who beat Mr. Leopold de Rothschild's Bevil by a long head. Mr. Archibald Gold was the last holder of the Whip. He challenged Prince Soltykoff in 1899,

naming Villiers by Thurio-Lady Clarendon, and the Prince named Canopus to defend. Villiers made all the running, and won by 15 lengths.

The race for the Whip is the longest run under Jockey Club rules; it is run at the Second October Meeting over the Beacon Course-4 miles 1 furlong 177 yards. The weight to be carried is 10 stone, and the stakes 200 sovereigns a-side. The Whip may be challenged for twice a year, and the challenge must be accepted or the trophy given up; no challenge issued last October, but the latter opportunity was taken by Lord Ellesmere and Sir E. Cassell. Under the rules Mr. Archibald Gold was obliged to accept the challenge or resign holdership of the Whip by 31st July. Villiers having died, he adopted the latter course, and thus the race was reduced to a match as is usual. The first sheet calendar in October contained the names of the horses nominated, Lord Ellesmere's Ultimatum and Sir E. Cassell's Gadfly to wit, and on the concluding day of the Newmarket Second October Meeting, Gadfly beat Ultimatum by four lengths, making Sir E. Cassell holder of the Whip for the year.

The Whip may not leave the United Kingdom. It is a short, heavy, old-fashioned jockey whip; the hair interwoven and plaited through the ring on the handle is from the tail of the famous Eclipse.

L

CHAPTER XVI

SPURS, ANCIENT AND MODERN

THOSE Who like to glean knowledge hastily, and therefore superficially, will not find much information about spurs in most dictionaries; and we fancy we are right in asserting that nobody has written them up to date. Even that admirable work, the "Encyclopædia Britannica," ignores them completely; yet it mentions horsemanship and other equine matters, such as bits and saddles. The British Museum has a poor collection, chiefly Mexican ones. So, needless to add, that primitive spurs is a precious tough subject to get up. It has saddened many people who have tried to tackle it. The difficulty lies in finding out what sort of a "heel shod with iron," to use a phrase of Virgil's, was worn previous to the Norman Conquest.

But

A good many authorities declare that the ancient Greeks knew about, yet did not use, spurs. they possibly had one, made of bronze, with a solid point on a semicircle, whose extremities were pierced with holes, through which thongs were put in order to fasten them on. Certainly the Romans had similar ones in iron to those just described. They were used in the Augustan age; their historians prove this conclusively.

And we might add that antique equestrian figures disprove it. Consequently at this period we have to cope with either a coincidence or an countable mystery. Does it not appear inexplicable that Greek and Roman sculptors did not model horsemen with spurs on? Of course we can only judge from the work they left behind. But the old historians were more thoughtful. As proof of this, Cicero used the word calcar in a double sense as an ordinary spur, and also metaphorically as "such an one wants a bridle, such an one a spur," signifying that one person was too quick and the other too slow. Again, the wellknown phrase, a "heel shod with iron," is used by Virgil; and Plautus and several others, who lived in that remote time, have passively alluded to spurs, but have never attempted to fix the date of their invention.

The earliest pattern is called the primitive "pryck" spur. And here comes the gap which no author can satisfactorily fill, because we naturally want to know the connection between this early "pryck" spur worn by the Romans and those used by the Anglo-Saxons. Now it is easy to conjecture. But we must go a step further, and consider every link in the chain of evidence. The Saxons used a "spuran," as they called it, which was similar to those used by the Romans, who conquered Britain. Plainly, the Saxons borrowed the idea of their spurs from the Romans; this is the logical deduction.

In as few words as possible let us trace this interesting subject from the Augustan age up to