the riding heats for a plate, or other premium. See PLATE. The amusement of horse-racing, which is now so common, was not unknown among the great nations of antiquity, nor wholly unpractised by our ancestors in Britain, as we have already mentioned in the article RACE. In 1599, private matches between gentlemen, who were their own jockeys and riders, were very common; and in the reign of James I., public races were established at various places, when the discipline, and mode of preparing the horses for running, &c. were much the same as they are now. The most celebrated races of that time were called bell-courses, the prize of the conqueror being a bell: hence, perhaps, the phrase bearing the bell, when applied to excellence, is derived. In the latter end of Charles I.'s reign, races were performed in Hyde-Park. Newmarket was also a place for the same purpose, though it was first used for hunting. Racing was revived soon after the Restoration, and much encouraged by Charles II. who appointed races for his own amusement at Datchet Mead, when he resided at Windsor. Newmarket, however, now became the principal place. The king attended in person, established a house for his own accommodation, and kept and entered horses in his own name. Instead of bells, he gave a silver bowl or cup value 100 guineas; on which prize the exploits and pedigree of the successful horse were generally engraved. Instead of the cup or bowl, the royal gift is now a hundred guineas. William III. not only added to the plates, but even founded an academy for riding; and Queen Anne continued the bounty of her ancestors, adding several plates herself. George I. towards the end of his reign, discontinued the plates, and gave in their room a hundred guineas. An act was passed in the 13th year of the reign of George II. for suppressing races by poneys and other small and weak horses, horses, &c., by which all matches for any prize under the value of £50l. are prohibited, under a penalty of £200l. to be paid by the owner of each horse running, and £100l. by such as advertise the plate; and by which each horse entered to run, if five years old, is obliged to carry ten stones; if six, eleven; and if seven, twelve. It is also ordained, that no person shall run any horse at a course unless it be his own, nor enter more than one horse for the same plate, upon pain of forfeiting the horse; and also every horse-race must be begun and ended in the same day. Horses may run for the value of £50l. with any weight, and at any place, 13 Geo. II. cap. 19. 18 Geo. II. cap. 34. Pennant's British Zoology, vol. i. p. 6, &c. Berenger's History and Art of Horsemanship, vol. i. p. 185, &c. At Newmarket there are two courses, the long and the round: the first is exactly four miles and about 380 yards, i.e. 7420 yards. The second is 6640 yards. Childers, the swiftest horse ever known, has run the first course in seven minutes and a half, and the second in six minutes forty seconds; which is at the rate of more than forty-nine feet in a second. But all other horses take up at least seven minutes and fifty seconds in completing the first and longest course, and seven minutes only in the shortest, which is at the rate of more than forty-seven feet in a second. And it is commonly supposed that these coursers cover, at every bound, a space of ground in length about twenty-four English feet. Race-horses have for some time been an object of taxation.

RACHITIS, the Rickets. See Medicine Index.