Upon such occasions the streets, we are told, were made impassable by coaches and six. “In the places of public resort peers flirted with maids of honour, while officers of the Life Guards, all plumes and gold lace, jostled professors in teachers' caps and black gowns, for from the neighbouring University of Cambridge there always came high functionaries with loyal addresses, and the University would select her ablest theologians to preach before the sovereign and his splendid retinue.”
Whether those able theologians were valued at their true worth may be gathered from a further description in which we learn that during the wildest days of the Restoration “the most learned and eloquent divine might fail to draw a fashionable audience, particularly if Buckingham had announced his intention of holding forth, for sometimes his Grace would enliven the dullness of the Sunday morning by addressing to the bevy of fine gentlemen and fine ladies a ribald exhortation which he called a sermon.”
The court of King William, however, proved more decent, and then the Academic dignitaries were treated with marked respect. “Thus with lords and ladies from St James's and Soho, and with doctors from Trinity College and King's College, were mingled the provincial aristocracy, fox-hunting squires and their rosy-cheeked daughters, who had come in queer-looking family coaches drawn by cart horses from the remotest parishes of three or four counties to see their Sovereign.
“The Heath was fringed by a wild, gipsy-like camp of vast extent. For the hope of being able to feed on the leavings of many sumptuous tables, and to pick up some of the guineas and crowns which the spendthrifts of London were throwing about, attracted thousands of peasants from a circle of many miles.”
CHAPTER IV
Arrival of the Byerley Turk—Roman Catholics forbidden to own a horse worth over £5—Henry Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, on the manners of the age—King William III.'s death due to a riding accident—The Duke of Cumberland's breeding establishment in Queen Anne's reign—Arrival of the Darley Arabian—The Godolphin Arabian—Royal Ascot inaugurated by Queen Anne—“Docking” and “cropping” condemned by Queen Anne; attempt to suppress these practices—The story of Eclipse—Some horses of romance—Copenhagen and Marengo
THOUGH James II. strove to emulate to some extent the example set by his lighthearted predecessor on England's throne, he failed almost from the outset to achieve popularity in any marked degree. More partial to hunting than to racing, during his brief reign he nevertheless gave his support to the Turf and strove to encourage the breeding of blood stock. His interest in the chase, however, evaporated almost completely as he became more and more engrossed in the affairs of state.