In 1665, the next year after the Dutch had surrendered the country to the English, Governor Nicolls established a race-course on Hempstead Plains and offered prizes for the fleetest runners, and his successors kept up annual meetings on that course for many years. This was the first official and regularly organized race-course that we have any trace of in this country. These meetings seem to have been well supported from the very first by both town and country, and as the people were then practically all Dutch, it is a fair inference that the horses engaged in the races were Dutch horses. This was before the English race horse had reached the character of a breed, and a hundred years before the first of that breed was imported into New York. From this beginning many tracks were constructed or improvised in and about the city, upon which racing at all forms and at all gaits has been carried on to the present day. When honestly conducted the sport has always been favorably received by reputable people; but at successive periods it has degenerated into a mere carnival of gambling that placed it under a ban. The horses of the New England colonies fill a very important place in the horse history of the country. This is especially true of a remarkable tribe of swift pacers, produced in Rhode Island and known throughout the whole country as the “Narragansett Pacers.” To the description of these a special chapter will be devoted. The first horses imported into New England reached Boston harbor in 1629 and were sent direct from England by the proprietary company in London. The same year a small consignment reached Salem. The next year about sixty head were shipped to the plantation, but many of them were lost on the voyage. In 1635 two Dutch ships landed at Salem with twenty-seven mares and three stallions, and were sold there at remunerative prices. Other shipments followed, no doubt, that have not been noted. In 1640 the colonists seem to have been supplied with all the horses they needed, for that year they shipped a cargo of eighty head to the Barbadoes. From these importations into Boston and Salem, all the New England colonists received their supplies. The field specially gleaned to determine the size and gaits of the Massachusetts horses covered the years 1756-59, from which it appears that the average height was then fourteen hands and one inch; and as to gait, just three-fourths were pacers and one-fourth trotters. In comparing this average size with the Virginians of the same period we find that the Massachusetts horses were about one hand higher, which would indicate the influence of the early Dutch blood. Besides this we must make some allowance for a possible different habit of estimating size.