As has been stated, the inner history of the Club is not as yet public property. The Jockey Club is simply of the nature of a private society, and racing authorities differ somewhat as to the time when it was instituted. One writer says it was during the reign of George II,; another tells us the Club was constituted between the years 1750 and 1760, when a few gentlemen interested in the sport of horse-racing, and who, moreover, were in the habit of riding their own horses, banded themselves together, and became founders of the tribunal which at present governs the "sport of kings." The original title to enrolment, it has been stated, was the wearing of boots and spurs. The first official mention of the Club occurs in Heber's Racing Calendar for 1758, under the heading of "Orders," given for the purpose of compelling riders to weigh when they came in from running their horses in a race, on pain of being dismissed, which order is signed by Lord March and other noblemen and gentlemen then members of the institution. In an excellent, although brief, sketch of the history of the Club contributed to the "Badminton Library," we are told that tradition points to its origin in the year 1750, before which time the usual meeting-place for gentlemen attending Newmarket was the "Red Lion Inn," the site of which is supposed to have been on the present Station Road. In 1752, the subscription-room was built, and it may be taken for granted that the Club would then be formed, or had been formed a little time previously. It was not till the year 1770 that stewards began to be regularly appointed, and their duties defined; there were stewards, however, eight years previously, but the functions they fulfilled are not known. From its beginning, the members of the Jockey Club were persons of high social position.