Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Newmarket

NEWMARKET, a market-town, partly in Cambridge and partly in Suffolk, and the seat of important races, is situated on the Cambridge and Bury branch of the Great Eastern Railway, 13 miles north-east of Cambridge and 60 north by east of London. The parish church of Saint Mary, an old Gothic building of stone, was recently restored. Newmarket has been celebrated for its races from the time of James I. The house built for this monarch's use during his visit to the races, and enlarged by Charles II., is now partly occupied by a Congregational chapel. The Beacon race-course at Newmarket is about 4 miles long, and is the finest in the world. The town is the chief seat of the Jockey Club, and of the training establishments for races, more than 1000 horses generally occupying the stables at one time. Near the race-course is the Devil's Ditch, consisting of a ditch and mound 4 or 5 miles long and 100 feet broad, with a slope of 50 feet on the south-west side. Roman remains have been found in the neighbourhood. The population of the urban sanitary district (740 acres) in 1871 was 4534, and in 1881 it was 5093.