Among the principal of the royal amusements in the time of Charles the Second were horse-racing and theatrical performances. The King kept an establishment at Newmarket, where, according to Strutt, "he entered horses and ran them in his name." And the author of some doggerel verses, referring to Burford Downs, says:-- "Next for the glory of the place, Here has been rode many a race,-- King Charles the Second I saw here; But I've forgotten in what year." CHRISTMAS AT SEA IN 1675. The Rev. Henry Teonge, chaplain of an English ship of war, gives in his diary a description of the manner in which the Christmas was spent on board, in 1675:--"Dec. 25, 1675.--Crismas day wee keepe thus. At 4 in the morning our trumpeters all doe flatt their trumpetts, and begin at our Captain's cabin, and thence to all the officers' and gentlemen's cabins; playing a levite at each cabine door, and bidding good morrow, wishing a merry Crismas. After they goe to their station, viz., on the poope, and sound 3 levitts in honour of the morning. At 10 wee goe to prayers and sermon; text, Zacc. ix. 9. Our Captaine had all his officers and gentlemen to dinner with him, where wee had excellent good fayre: a ribb of beife, plumb-puddings, minct pyes, &c. and plenty of good wines of severall sorts; dranke healths to the King, to our wives and friends, and ended the day with much civill myrth." [Illustration] CHRISTMAS-KEEPING IN THE COUNTRY, at this period, is referred to by different writers. Among the Garrick Plays in the British Museum is "_The Christmas Ordinary, a Private Show_; wherein is expressed the jovial Freedom of that Festival: as it was acted at a Gentleman's House among other Revels. By W. R., Master of Arts, 4 to. London, 1682."