Two hundred and eighty-five years ago, there was a racecourse at Doncaster; there is a record, in the year 1600, of action being taken to clear the course of some impediment that had been placed upon it. So far back, indeed, as 1595, there were two racecourses at Doncaster--there is said to be a plan or map, still extant, showing the lines of the track. Various interesting notes of incidents in connection with the Town Moor, in what by a little license may be called its prehistoric days, might be gathered into a focus, more particularly the particulars of how sport was encouraged in its infantile aspects by the Corporation of Doncaster; but these, in the meantime, for divers good reasons, must be passed over. For the year 1728, we are in possession of the printed record of two races run on the Town Moor; these were: "On July 22nd, a plate of twenty guineas, for horses ten stone, four-mile heats, 'won at two heats, by Captain Collyer's b. h. Drummer, beating five others;' and on July 23rd, a plate of forty guineas, for six-year-old horses, four-mile heats, won by Trentham, the property of Lord Gower, which beat three others." In the following year, there was at least one race run at Doncaster, while in 1730, there were three different four-mile heat races contested; in 1731 and 1732, sport again went on, a contest for "Galloways" having been instituted in the latter year, which was continued for some seasons. In 1738 there appears to have been an autumn meeting, of which, however, in the years immediately following we find no further notice; indeed, for the four years preceding 1751, there are no returns of races run at Doncaster in print, but, in that year, three plates of £50 each were contested. The Marquis of Rockingham comes to the front in 1752, when he gives a plate of £50, to be run for by four-year-olds that had never won £50--the trophy was taken by Cato, the property of Mr. Bowes. At Doncaster, in the year 1755, we find a programme of five races provided, and a match thrown in the bargain. In those days, sport was taken in leisure, the programme being spread over the week, at the rate of one race per diem. Matches, in 1756, seem to have been "all the go," as no less than seven were brought off on the Town Moor in that year, three of them being won by the Marquis of Rockingham, who had by this time begun to play a prominent part in the Doncaster struggles. IV.