A HISTORY OF KENT at Margate in 1820; the united Chatham and Rochester meetings began in 1822 ; Faversham followed suit the next year ; and Tunbridge Wells inaugurated a fixture in 1824. At Ashford, racing was established two years later, and Dover came next, in 1827. Wye followed several years later, the first recorded meeting taking place there in 1849. Of these early meetings of the last century the chief interest attaches to those held at Ashford, which flourished as a racing centre until 1841. The Ashford meetings were among the most popular of all race gatherings in the county, and in the entire history of early heat-racing in Kent it would be difficult to find a more notable occasion than the inaugural Town Plate of 1826. The distance of this event was a mile and a half shorter than the famous recorded four mile Give and Take Plate decided at York in the year 1784, which so pleased one Mr. Perram that he took the unusual course of bequeathing the sum of ^^30 to the owner of the Avinning horse. The heats of the Ashford Town Plate, like that of York, numbered five, including one in which there was no decision, the judge being unable to separate the horses. The record of the race, which is remarkable enough in its way to be worthy of detailed mention here, was as follows : — Ashford 1826 Monday, September 7. The Town Pl.ite of 50 sovs ; weight for age, winners extra ; heats two miles and a half. Mr. Tyr Jones ch f Partial by Sooth- sayer, 4 yrs. . . . -2 I o I Mr. Scaith's gr c Jack Bounce, 4 yrs. 21202 Mr. Wickham's Mary Anne, late Ynysymaengwyn, aged . . - 3 3 — Mr. Brown's b m Maid of Kent, 6 yrs. (wrong side of the post) . i -dis - - Mr. Howard's ch m Sophia, 5 yrs. — dr — Mr. Heathcote's wh c Syntax 3 yrs. 3 dr Chatham's racing career has been of a very chequered character, its meetings having been held intermittently from 1822 to i860. There is little of interest concerning them ; but we learn that the Chatham course was ' one mile and one furlong with a straight run-in of a quarter of a mile with 24 rods all flat and in one field.' It is further recorded that ' the horses were seen from the judge's chair all the way round.' Dover Races claim more attention. The races were originally held near the town be- yond the castle, and there they might have been continued for many years had not some trouble with the municipality arisen, which eventually led to their removal. A new site was thereupon offered by the seventh Earl of Guilford in his park at Waldershare, and here the races were carried on wth some success until 1880. But although the new course at Waldershare was in every way vastly superior to the original venue, the removal of Dover Races so far from the town naturally had a prejudicial effect upon their popularity. When the races were held on the heights the occasion was considered a great social function and all the county magnates attended. Prominent visitors in the old days were Lord Palmerston, and the second Earl Granville, ^hen in residence at Walmer near by. It cannot perhaps be said that the horses that made their appearance at such fixtures as Dover were of remarkable excellence ; but Cecil, winner of the Cesarewitch in 1868, figured at one of these meetings a month or so before he won the big race. Lord Guil- ford spared no expense in making the new course at Waldershare suitable in all ways for the purposes of racing, and spent a considerable sum of money in railing in half a mile straight of the three-quarters run-in of a track which extended for quite two miles round. Many an Epsom and Berkshire trainer has sighed at the sight of this excellent track and longed to transport it to his training grounds for use as a summer gallop. The turf was old and in good con- dition in all weathers, and a separate track, also laid out by his lordship and equally good in its way, was used for steeplechasing. Lord Guilford also erected a grand stand at his own expense and may be said practically to have run the meeting after its removal to his domains. Things flourished for many a day at Walder- share until the passing of a new Jockey Club rule which raised the added money of a race meeting to £300 per day, of which ill 50 at least had to be given to a race of a mile or up- wards. This new law was destined to play havoc with the success of other Kentish meet- ings besides Dover. Not only did it upset the smaller fixtures throughout the county, but it also in the course of time interfered greatly with meetings of far greater importance. Margate, Maidstone, Shorncliffe, Folkestone, Tonbridge, Wye, Rochester, and Bromley, as well as the original Canterbury meeting, the forerunner of them all, shared the fate of Dover one after another. A little meeting started in 1852 at Lenham, between Maidstone and Ashford, held out until i860, during which period it was well supported 494
