The Royal Palace.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 215, 13 August 1887, Page 8

The Royal Palace.

The royal palace at Newmarket, built by James 1., stood upon the site now occupied by the Rutland Arms. His Majesty, wo are told, kept open house and dispensed with the state and ceremony rigorously exacted at Whitehall. The fun was fast and furious, and the " cofferer's accounts," still preserved in the Rolls' Office, reveal | that at this particular meeting the royal hospitality coat no less than Ll, 72o— equal to about ten times that amount in our money. The " concubines," as Lord Macaulay calls them, lived each in her own house outside the precincts of the palace, and kepi gaming tables, at which large sums were lost and won. The Duchess of Cleveland had already lost her beauty and the influence it gave her, and the most popular "hell" was presided over by the Duches3 of Mazarin, at which it is said that one nobleman lost L 6,000, or L 12,000 in our present values — about equal to the losses made by the Marquis of Hastings when Mr Chaplin's Hermit won the Derby, with odds of 100 to 1 against him. The racing, however, in those days was far different from that of the present thne. Thus the races were between horses generally ridden by their noble riders, carrying from 160 to 190 pounds apiece, and the favourite course was over six miles of ground. A letter is still extant, written by the Duko of York to his niece, che Countess of Lichfield, and dated from London upon October 19th, 1653. He tells her that he arrived the day previous from Newmarket, and that the King was expected on the morrow. "Although," he continues, the King's stay at Newmai-ket was not as long as usual, yet there has been more horse-races than I can remember at any meeting, there never having past a day, at least when I was there, without one, and for the most part two or three, and to-day there is to be run seven. The weather whilst we was there, was very dry, but cold, so that there was very bad hunting." The gaunt old town has been enlarged and improved, but the heath itself is in the same state as when visited two centuries since by the Merry Monarch and his dissolute court,

Teacher : "So you can'b do a simple sum in arithmetic ? Now let me explain it to you. Suppose eight of you have together fortyeight apples, thirty-two poaches, and sixteen melons, what would each one of you get !'* " Cholera nobua," replied Johnny.