RACING ADVENTURERS 224 RACING ROGUERIES 270 THE LADY ELIZABETH SCANDAL 301 RACING REFORM. SIR J. HAWLEY, ETC. 314 ASSUMED NAMES. JOCKEYS AND THEIR COMMISSIONERS 330 JOCKEYS 339 ABOUT THE JOCKEY CLUB 360 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. BEGINNINGS OF RACING. The origin of horse-racing cannot be fixed by any quotation of dates, as none are extant to show by whom the first race was planned, the terms on which it was run, the distance traversed, the kind of horses which ran, the men who trained them, or the jockeys who rode them. It may, however, be taken for granted that, as an English sport, horse-racing began in homely fashion, and, in the days of old, centuries ago that is to say, was a very different pastime from what it is to-day. Attempts have often been made to trace the beginnings of horse-racing, but not with much success. It has been assumed by writers on the subject, that there would in the first place be trials of strength of a friendly description among neighbours, matches, perhaps, between horses which their owners looked upon as being animals above the common run. Scientific, or planned racing, in other words, the elaborately arranged contests with which, as a nation, we are familiar is, it may be said, a comparatively modern pastime. But the sport of horse-racing, as we know it to-day, has undoubtedly been elaborated from those simple trials of equine strength that took place centuries ago, which may, in many instances, have been arranged to promote the selling of horses. "Look ye, sir, let us try our horses against each other, and if yours prove better than mine I'll buy it," is a saying that might represent the idea entertained; and so, on an improvised course, ridden very likely by their owners--"owners up"--at what are called catch-weights, there would off hand be run a race of the kind indicated. At village feasts, fairs, and other gatherings of a popular kind, as has been often told, races of a rough-and-ready sort--precursors of the more elaborate meetings with which the public are now familiar--were long ago run. Accustomed as we have long been to very complete records of racing, we look with some impatience on the dry fragments and supposititious statements, in which are embodied what is known regarding the birth of horse-racing. Our public journals day by day contain more in one publication than can be gathered from the historic records of the country about the horse-racing of a hundred years, when the compiler requires to carry his search back to days before good Queen Bess began to reign. In those days neither "our racing reporter" nor "our sporting correspondent" had come upon the scene.