A journey to Newmarket, however, was not the short run of the present day, and Pepys, under March 8, 1669, tells us how the King set out for the races at a somewhat early hour: “To Whitehall, from whence the King and the Duke of York went by three in the morning, and had the misfortune to be overset with the Duke of York, the Duke of Monmouth, and the Prince Rupert, at the King’s Gate, in Holborne; and the King all dirty, but no hurt. How it came to pass I know not, but only it was dark, and the torches did not, they say, light the coach as they should do.” A few weeks after this mishap, Pepys informs us that on the 26th April, “the King and Court went out of town to Newmarket this morning betimes, for a week.” And Evelyn, under the 9th and 10th October, 1671, makes this entry in his “Diary”: “I went after evening service to London, in order to take a journey of refreshment with Mr. Treasurer, to Newmarket, where the King then was, in his coach with six brave horses, which we changed thrice, first at Bishop Stortford, and last at Chesterford; so, by night, we got to Newmarket, where Mr. Henry Jermain--nephew to the Earl of St. Alban’s--lodged me very civilly. We proceeded immediately to Court, the King and all the English gallants being there at their annual sports. Supped at the Lord Chamberlain’s; and the next day, after dinner, I was on the heath, where I saw the great match run between Woodcock and Flatfoot, belonging to the [Illustration: CHARLES II.] King, and to Mr. Elliot of the Bedchamber, many thousands being spectators; a more signal race had not been run for many years.”