JULIETTA. Shall we venture nothing o’ th’ horses? What oddes against my Lord?
JU. To a paire of perfum’d gloves, I take it.
JU. The stockings shall be scarlet, if you choose Your sent, Ile choose my sent.
M. CA. ’Tis done, if _Venture_ Knew but my lay, it would halfe breake his necke now, And crying _A Jockey!_ _hay!_
JU. Is the wind in that coast, harke the noyse. Is _Jockey_ now?
L. BON. Won, Won, I knew by instinct The mare would put some tricke upon him.
M. BON. Then we ha’ lost; but, good my Lord, the circumstance.
L. BON. Great _John_ at all adventure and grave _Jockey_
Mounted their severall Mares, I sha’not tell The story out for laughing, ha, ha, ha, But this in briefe; _Jockey_ was left behind, The pitty and the scorne of all the oddes, Plaid ’bout my eares like Cannon, but lesse dangerous, I looke all still: the acclamations was For _Venture_, whose disdainful Mare threw durt In my old _Jockey’s_ face, all hopes forsaking us, Two hundred peeces desperate, and two thousand Oathes sent after them: upon the suddaine, When we expected no such tricke, we saw My rider, that was domineering ripe, Vault ore his Mare into a tender slough, Where he was much beholding to one shoulder For saving of his necke; his beast recovered, And he, by this time, somewhat mortified, Besides mortified, hath left the triumph To his Olympick Adversary, who shall Ride hither in full pompe on his _Bucephalus_, With his victorious bagpipe.
These pedestrian races between “Running footmen” seem to have been common in Hyde Park, as Pepys notes under date August 10, 1660. “With Mr. Moore and Creed to Hyde Park by Coach, and saw a fine foot race three times round the Park, between an Irishman and Crow, that was once my Lord Claypole’s footman.” And for another instance of horse-racing in the Park we can find one in the comedy of _The Mulberry Garden_, by Sir Charles Sedley (1668), where, in Act I. Scene 2, Ned Estridge, speaking of Sir John Everyoung, says, “’Tis a pleasant old fellow. He has given me a hundred pounds for my _Graybeard_, and is to ride himself, this day month, twice round the Park, against a bay stone horse of _Wildishe’s_, for two hundred more.” Whilst for a different kind of race we have the testimony of Evelyn, who says: “May 20th, 1658. I went to see a coach race in Hide Park, and collationed in Spring Garden.” In _The Merry Life and mad Exploits of Captain_ James Hind, _The great Robber of England_, a noted highwayman _temp._ Charles II., is a story of “How _Hind_ robbed a Gentleman in _Hide Park_ of a Bag of Money. _Hind_ being well mounted, went one Evening into _Hide Park_, to see some Sport, and riding by a Gentleman’s Coach, espied a Bag of Money, upon which _Hind_ used some Discourse about the Race that was going to be run; but the Race beginning, the Gentleman caused his Coach to stand still, that he might the easier judge which of the Horses run best. Hind’s head not being idle, rode close to the Coach side, took the Bag of Money in his hands, and rode away with it. The Gentleman presently missing his Bag of Money, cries out, _Stay him, Stay him, I am robbed_. Many rode after him, especially the Captain whom he robbed at _Chalk Hill_, who pursued him very hard. _Hind_ riding by _St. James’s_, said to the Soldiers, _I have won the Wager_; but holding of the Bag fast, his Cloak fell off, which he left for them that came next. But when he came to his companions, he said, _I never earned a hundred pounds so dear in all my life_.”