Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

During the last thirty-five years, Newmarket has greatly flourished, and is becoming every day of greater importance. At the time indicated above it was a poor place, many gentlemen declining to send their horses to be trained there, some of them would not believe its being possible to train a Derby winner on the heath. For several years, no winner of the Derby was trained at Newmarket. By 1860, however, fortune had begun to smile on the place, which may be said, with the advent of the Dawson family, to have commenced a career of prosperity which still goes on. Mr. Joseph Dawson came first with the horses of Lord Stamford; Mr. Mathew Dawson followed, and to that gentleman's care Lord Falmouth entrusted his horses; Mr. John Dawson likewise took up his quarters at Newmarket. Other trainers speedily blossomed into importance, and Newmarket horses began to make their mark on every racecourse in the kingdom, so that the town speedily became important as a great training centre, the best training talent of the kingdom indeed became centred at head-quarters, and from 1863 to the present year the town has flourished exceedingly. Land has of late become so valuable that it is difficult to procure a site for a house or a stable under an impossible price. The numerous persons engaged in the training stables create a large amount of remunerative business to the tradespeople, whilst the building operations of the last twenty years have given employment to a regiment of mechanics and labourers.

It is affirmed that the business of horse-racing is seen at its best at Newmarket; but such a statement may be taken for what it is worth, as the arrangements made at the gate money meetings are remarkably perfect. It is quite on the cards that the racing tracks at Newmarket will speedily be so enclosed that no outsider will be able to witness the sport, various movements in that direction having already taken place.

OTHER SEATS OF HORSE-RACING.

I.

Racing of some kind, good or bad as may happen, is carried on, not only at Newmarket, but at many other places all the year round. When flat-racing ceases, steeple-chasing follows, and proceeds till what is called "the legitimate season" begins; it occupies the period from about the end of March till the close of November. Hardened turfites, that is men who make racing and betting the business of their lives, long, it is said, in the early part of the year to hear the saddling-bell sound at Lincoln where the first meeting is held; and from that much-talked-of seat of sport they journey to Liverpool, and thence to Northampton and other seats of horse-racing, pursuing their business most industriously, shouting the state of the odds with stentorian lungs and booking no end of bets, for wherever half-a-dozen bookmakers assemble, there will also be found an army of bettors eager to take "the odds," some of them with "systems" by which they hope to make their fortunes; others, too, are there, who trust to luck, or the bringing off of an occasional good thing by means of a tip, which they may receive from some acquaintance or friend, or they put faith, perhaps, in the two horse or other wires of some brazen charlatan of the tipster tribe, of whom for the time they become victims.

The Lincolnshire Handicap is the principal betting race of the springtime; many horses are usually selected by bettors to win that event, and one or two of the number will be heavily backed by men, who, in the end, may see all their cherished mind's eye visions vanish into thin air, as some quite unthought of outsider romps home an easy winner. The meeting held at Lincoln occupies three days, and before it concludes, some of the green hands, who have come on the racing scene as _débutants_, determined to give the ring a fright by backing many winners, will have made the old, old discovery over again that "all is not gold that glitters." New-made owners of horses, too, will have found out before the expiry of the three days, that men quite as clever as themselves are ready to fight every inch of the ground. "Keep thy head cool, lad," said, on one occasion, an old turfite to an irate young owner, who felt annoyed, or rather aggrieved, at his horse being placed second in a race which he fancied it had won, "you will get other chances for your horse; the season is but young, hide your feelings, you won't do much good at racing if you wear your heart on your sleeve."

To-day the railways convey the masses in large numbers to the different seats of sport. Thousands are now seen at Lincoln for the hundreds of the olden time; but in olden times the classes were more in evidence: county people came in their own carriages, often from considerable distances, to be present at their local meetings, "ladies in gay attire, and gentlemen in brave apparel;" but county ladies are somewhat chary at the present time of braving the rough-and-ready element which has become incidental to modern racing, and the very pronounced rowdyism by which it is accompanied.

The spectators of the various races who assemble on the course near Liverpool represent all classes, the middle class element being particularly strong. The favourite race at Aintree at the spring meeting is the Grand National Steeple-chase. On the day set apart for the decision of that event, the trains and other conveyances from the great port take tens of thousands to the scene, all anxious, if not to witness the exciting event, to gamble upon it, for it is not the sport that attracts the multitude, it is "the money." Men go upon racecourses for whom the horses and the work they are set to do have no charms; what they interest themselves about is the state of the odds. "Oh," said a so-called Liverpool "sportsman," "I don't care a copper about seeing the race. I never look at the performance. The horses go up in the air and come down in the ditches too often for my taste; one trembles for one's money as one sees the exhibition." There are doubtless many who hold similar opinions; indeed, it would be curious to know what proportion of the thousands who attend such a meeting as that held at Liverpool are there only for the sake of the sport, not probably ten per cent. of the number!

By the time Northampton is reached, the racing fraternity has been well shaken down, and the new hands in betting and bookmaking have got pretty well mixed up with the old. Acquaintances and "pals" have met once again, and Bill and Tom, and Dick and Harry, have shaken hands, compared notes, and exchanged small talk. All meet on the hail-fellow-well-met system. There is no formality. Nomenclature among the majority of racing-men seldom gets further than the Christian name, and even that must be abridged. The wealthiest bookmaker, no matter that he is able to keep a carriage for "the missus," and half-a-dozen gardeners to grow his grapes, and as many grooms to attend to the horses of his children, is only Ned, or Ted, or Jack, or Jim, to his fellows. In these matters the turf is a sad leveller. I have myself heard Mr. Dawson hailed as "Mat, old man," by a turf loafer whose whole wardrobe would scarcely fetch two half-crowns, and, "Well, Johnny," has been addressed to Mr. Osborne by a half-drunken cabman who fancied he was patronising that well-known horseman by addressing him so familiarly. The late Mr. Merry of St. James's Street, who was long connected with the turf, I remember knocked down a very cheeky turf vagabond, who had the impudence to address him as "Sam" in the presence of some members of his family.

It is not my cue to follow the racing crowd on tour, or to fill many of the following pages with an account of what takes place at every place of meeting. The seats of horse-racing are too numerous to admit of their being so dealt with; all I desire to do at present, is simply to give a brief notice of such of the classic horse-racing resorts as are endowed with a history, such as Chester, York, Doncaster, Ascot, Goodwood, and Epsom. The meetings which take place at Sandown and Kempton Parks I leave to be dealt with by other historians.

II.

To Chester must be awarded the merit of having first established regular meetings. Racing sport at that place has been traced back to the year 1511, since which 380 years have elapsed, and the races at Chester still flourish; the theatre of the annual sports being, as at the time indicated, the Rood Dee, which had always been the arena in which the Chester people displayed their powers. It was there where they contested the palm in archery, pedestrianism, wrestling, and similar sports, and also the place where they exhibited their skill in mimic warfare.

Although for nearly a hundred years racing of a kind took place between the walls of the city on one side, and the river on the other, it was not till 1609 that racing at Chester came to be organised in something like the shape of the racing contests of to-day. The first prizes given appear to have been a bell and a bowl, to be run for on St. George's Day; the donor of those gifts was the sheriff of the city, and the trophies were presented with much civic pomp and pretence. Trifling nowadays seem such gifts in the face of the thousands of pounds of added money, and the sideboard pieces of silver and gold which signalise many of the race-meetings of to-day throughout the three kingdoms.

The races held at Chester were originally promoted by the traders who carried on business there, such as the Company of Shoemakers and the Company of Drapers, and were celebrated, of course, on the various annual holidays of the far back times just mentioned. A quaint account of the original races run on the Rood Dee was drawn up in 1595, by "that Reverend man of God, Mr. Robert Rodgers, bachelor of Divinitie, Archdeacon of Chester, parsone of Gooseworth and Prebend in the Cathedral of Chester." This clerical worthy tells us that at Chester "there is held every year three of the most commendable exercises and practices of war-like feates, as running of men on foote, running of horses, and shootinge of the broad arrowe, and the butt shaft in the long bowe, which is done in very few (if in any) citties of England, soe farr as I understand."

The same authority in his notes tells how the saddlers' ball, "profitable for few uses or purposes," being a ball of silk, of the bigness of a bowl, was changed into a silver bell weighing about two ounces, "the which saide silver bell was ordayned to be the reward for that horse, which with speedy runninge, then should rune before all the others." In the notes it is also stated that the shoemakers' footeball was before exchanged into silver gleaves. Without taking up space with particulars which can be obtained in county histories, it may be mentioned, in passing, that horse-racing was undoubtedly looked upon at Chester as a national pastime more than two hundred and seventy years ago. In the pageant for the inauguration of the first great festival of St. George, horses played a distinguished part, the victors in the various races being rewarded with the "cups and bels" provided. It will interest lovers of the turf to learn that the silver bell was of the then value of three shillings and fourpence.

In a "History of Horse-racing," published in 1863, appears the following summary of the early history of the sport at Chester: "In the year 1511, the silver bell of the value of three shillings and fourpence was first run for as a prize; in 1609 or 1610, the bell was converted into silver 'cupps,' the value of which is not stated, and from this date the race was annually run for on the Rood Dee, was then named and henceforth known as 'St. George's Race'; and in 1623 there was another alteration made in the prize run for, as in that year the three cups were changed into 'one faire silver cupp,' of about the value of eight pounds. With regard to the prizes, the silver bell run for in 1511 was apparently an absolute gift to the winner. The cups offered in 1609, however, were only temporary rewards, held by the winners for the space of twelve months, when the holders were under bond to deliver up the cups to be again run for; but they retained the amount in cash of the value of the cups as subscribed for by those who ran horses for the prize, and which was a condition of the race. But this again was altered in 1623, when the prize was once more to be held 'freely for ever by the winner.'"

Various alterations were from time to time made in the value of the Rood Dee prizes; in 1629, the city companies contributed to St. George's Race, to make up a certain sum of money; in the year 1640, the sheriffs contributed a piece of plate of the value of £13 6s. 8d. to be run for on Easter Tuesday, in place of a breakfast of calves' heads and bacon, which it had previously been the custom for the two sheriffs to shoot for on Easter Monday. In these early days of the pastime of horse-racing, there was only one day in which a race took place, one race only being run, and occasionally there was no lack of excitement; in 1665, for instance, there was a "row," because "the High Sheriff borrowed a Barbary horse of Sir Thomas Middleton, which won him the plate; and, being master of the race, he would not suffer the horses of Master Massey of Paddington, and of Sir Philip Egerton of Dalton, to run, because they came the day after the time prefixed for the horses to be brought and kept in the city; which thing caused all the gentry to relinquish the races ever since."

Having established Chester's pride of place in the chronology of the turf, the history of horse-racing as then carried on need scarcely be further alluded to, except to show how gradual was the change from the meagre sport of 1665 to the prolific pastime of the present period. In 1745, Chester races, we learn, occupied four days, but only one race took place each day; a case of linked sweetness long drawn out. During the year just named, the four prizes contended for were the St. George's Purse, of the value of £50, for which there was a field of nine horses; the City's Golden Cup of £60, five starters; the Contribution Plate of 50 gs., for which four horses ran.

_Lloyd's Evening Post_ of 21st March, 1780, gives the worth and conditions of the chief race as then run, which are as follows: "On Thursday, the 4th May, the Annual City Plate, valued £30, with a purse of £20, given by the Corporation, for five, six-year-olds, and aged horses; five-year-olds to carry 8st. 2lb., six-year-olds, 8st. 11lb., and aged, 9st. 5lb., mares to be allowed 3lb.; the best of three four-mile heats. To pay five shillings to the clerk of the course, and three guineas of entrance." The races decided at Chester continued to multiply, as time went on, till the institution of the race for the Tradesman's Cup, in 1824.

It would have been interesting to be able to chronicle more exactly the rise of racing at Chester and other seats of the sport; but in early days the records of the sport enjoyed were, in all probability, never committed to paper, at all events they do not exist, so far as is known to historians of the turf, in any consultative form. It would be a sight worth seeing if the race for the St. George's Cup, with all its surroundings of two centuries and a half ago, could be reproduced on the Rood Dee "some fine morning in the merry month of May," to be viewed alongside the struggle for Chester's greatest prize of to-day. At the time when "the Cup" was instituted, the sport of racing had attained a high position both at Chester and some other parts of England, "the races" formed a meeting-place of the county people which was largely taken advantage of for assemblies and other social gatherings; but that is not the case to-day, when people arrive to see the races by some forenoon train, and the moment sport ceases, depart as hurriedly as they came.

III.

"The great County of York" was famed at an early date for its seats of racing. The "Turf Annals" of York and Doncaster have an historian in John Orton, keeper of the match-book and clerk of the course, York. The capital of the great county, as that gentleman tells us, was the first to chronicle her sports, and to Yorkshire, "the British turf," he says, "has perhaps been more indebted for the superior breed and present perfection of the high mettled racer, than any other portion of the kingdom."

Orton in his compilation--a most useful work, to which writers about "the turf" have often been indebted--only deals with the accredited figures of racing, when the results began to be chronicled in a somewhat formal manner. But long before the date of the first race given in his volume, "York, 1709," the sport of horse-racing had been inaugurated, the prize as usual in those early days being a small golden or silver bell, to be carried presumably, in all time coming, by the victorious horse. In Camden's "Britannia" (1590) we are told of horse-racing having taken place in a forest on the east side of the city of York.

A horse-race it is recorded was run on the River Ouse when it was frozen over in 1607, and also in the following year. There is plenty of evidence as to the fact of horse-racing having taken place in these early days (1590); but it was long after that period before the sport was made to assume the shape which immediately preceded the business kind of racing with which so many persons are familiar at the present time.

Some racing commentators have asserted that racing began on Knavesmire, so early as 1709, and that the races at once became successful. The citizens, it is said, in that year "made a collection, with which they purchased five plates, which were run for over Knavesmire, and from that period to the present the annual meetings have been supported with much spirit." But the first race contested on that now famous course was in the year 1731. It was run on Monday, August 16th, being for His Majesty's 100 gs. for six-year-old horses, etc., 12 st., four-mile heats, the race being won by Lord Lonsdale's c. h. Monkey, by his lordship's bay Arabian, dam by Curwen's bay barb; racing continued throughout the whole week, four of the contests being in four-mile heats, the other race being the Ladies' Plate of £60, for five-year-old horses, etc., carrying 10 st. The racing, as established in Yorkshire in 1709, took place over Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings, about one and a half miles north of the city. From that year onwards, racing was kept up over the same course, and the reason given for changing to the Knavesmire was the races having on one occasion to be postponed on account of the River Ouse having overflowed its banks.

It will, perhaps, give a good idea of the times now spoken of, when it is stated that, during the running over Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings, on Monday, August 2nd, 1714, when the race for a gold cup of the value of £60 was being decided, an express arrived with news of the death of Her Majesty the Queen (Anne), upon which the nobility and gentry immediately left the field, and attended the Lord Mayor (William Redman, Esq.), and Archbishop Dawes, who proclaimed His Majesty King George I., after which most of the nobility set off for London.

In the year 1715, there was run at Black Hambledon, a race for His Majesty's Gold Cup, value 100 gs., for five-year-old mares. This cup, it has been explained, was originally free to be run for by any horse, mare, or gelding not exceeding five years old; but in the reign of Queen Anne, the conditions were altered, mares only being allowed to run. The first Hambledon Gold Cup was won by Sir William Strickland's horse, Sphynx. The Gold Cup continued to be run for apparently till 1775, when, by His Majesty's commands, it was ordered to be run for alternately at York and Richmond.

Two hundred and eighty-five years ago, there was a racecourse at Doncaster; there is a record, in the year 1600, of action being taken to clear the course of some impediment that had been placed upon it. So far back, indeed, as 1595, there were two racecourses at Doncaster--there is said to be a plan or map, still extant, showing the lines of the track. Various interesting notes of incidents in connection with the Town Moor, in what by a little license may be called its prehistoric days, might be gathered into a focus, more particularly the particulars of how sport was encouraged in its infantile aspects by the Corporation of Doncaster; but these, in the meantime, for divers good reasons, must be passed over.

For the year 1728, we are in possession of the printed record of two races run on the Town Moor; these were: "On July 22nd, a plate of twenty guineas, for horses ten stone, four-mile heats, 'won at two heats, by Captain Collyer's b. h. Drummer, beating five others;' and on July 23rd, a plate of forty guineas, for six-year-old horses, four-mile heats, won by Trentham, the property of Lord Gower, which beat three others." In the following year, there was at least one race run at Doncaster, while in 1730, there were three different four-mile heat races contested; in 1731 and 1732, sport again went on, a contest for "Galloways" having been instituted in the latter year, which was continued for some seasons. In 1738 there appears to have been an autumn meeting, of which, however, in the years immediately following we find no further notice; indeed, for the four years preceding 1751, there are no returns of races run at Doncaster in print, but, in that year, three plates of £50 each were contested.

The Marquis of Rockingham comes to the front in 1752, when he gives a plate of £50, to be run for by four-year-olds that had never won £50--the trophy was taken by Cato, the property of Mr. Bowes. At Doncaster, in the year 1755, we find a programme of five races provided, and a match thrown in the bargain. In those days, sport was taken in leisure, the programme being spread over the week, at the rate of one race per diem. Matches, in 1756, seem to have been "all the go," as no less than seven were brought off on the Town Moor in that year, three of them being won by the Marquis of Rockingham, who had by this time begun to play a prominent part in the Doncaster struggles.

IV.

Epsom must now be noticed, if only to say that racing took place there long before the Derby was thought of, or the Oaks either; but the beginning of sport on the now famous downs cannot be determined by any mention of dates. The place, however, was long, long ago largely frequented as a health resort, becoming at certain seasons the temporary residence of fashionable people who assembled to drink "the waters" and hold social communion. Sport of some kind became a necessity, and King James I., who dwelt in the palace of Nonsuch, at Epsom, passed much of his time on horseback, being fond of hunting and also of "horse matches," which frequently took place, to the great delight of the visitors.

In the reign of Charles I., horse-racing on Banstead Downs would appear to have been pretty well established on an organised plan; references to the sport by Pepys are numerous. Looking over the pages of a "Racing Register" for 1727, the writer found a notice of meetings held on the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th of May, when various "give and take" plates were run for and decided. For the time, the trophies raced for at the meetings in question were of some value, one of them being a gold cup worth forty guineas.

Beginning in the year 1730, racing became annual at Epsom, and was thereafter carried on with great regularity, and continued to grow in importance. In 1736, five days' racing was arranged to take place at intervals. Ten years later, a plate of the value of £50, bestowed by the Prince of Wales, was one of the trophies run for. In 1756 the total sum of £200 was raced for at Epsom; in 1766 the amount had been raised by fifty pounds. In 1782 two meetings were held, in the course of which a good many events fell to be decided.

The celebrity of Epsom as a seat of sport is, of course, due to its being the place where is run England's most celebrated race, "the Derby," some notes on which will be found in this volume. More than a hundred years have elapsed since Diomed carried the colours of his owner to victory in the first race for those now popular stakes, under circumstances of social life which have greatly changed. Not one of the spectators who witnessed Diomed's Derby victory would, in all probability, be endowed with the power of forecasting the growth of the pastime, or the ability to see in his mind's eye the huge proportions it would in time attain, or the money value which would attach to the winning horses, or "the annual expenditure of the tens of thousands of pounds," which would mark the recurrence of the event as it grew in popularity alike with the owners of competing horses and those who came to witness the race.

V.

It was the Duke of Cumberland, William, uncle to George III., who instituted the Ascot Meeting, more than a century and a half ago. The first reliable notice of racing at this Royal seat of sport gives 1727 as the year of commencement, when two prizes were contended for, the larger being of the value of forty guineas, the other ten guineas less than that sum. In the following year one race also of the value of forty-two pounds took place. For some years afterwards the racing at Ascot was of an intermittent sort, as no sport took place in the years 1729, 1731-4, nor yet in the years 1737-8, nor in 1740-3. A Yeoman Pricker's Plate of £50, for hunters only, was instituted in 1744, and, twenty-five years later, namely, in 1769, the Members and Corporation of Windsor each subscribed £50 to be raced for. The Duke took immense interest in the sport at Ascot, which, in its earlier days, was of a somewhat primitive kind, as were the surroundings vastly different in every way from what they are to-day.

"A memory has been kept up" of some races contested on the Royal ground, more particularly of one race, the Oatlands Stakes, run on the 28th of June, 1791, when it was said a hundred thousand pounds changed hands. The victorious horse on the occasion was the Prince of Wales's Baronet, which won the race from eighteen competitors. There were forty-one subscribers of a hundred guineas each, half forfeit, and the value of the stakes to the owner of the winning horse was 2,950 gs. The race is said to have been witnessed by about 40,000 persons; but order was so badly maintained that the venue of the race was shifted in the next year to Newmarket, where the Oatlands Stakes was run for in April, the money value involved being 3,725 gs., a large sum for those days.

During the close of the last century, Ascot races enjoyed immense popularity; they lasted for a week, and afforded a fund of amusement to all who witnessed them. They were beloved of the King--"the good old King George III."--who, for a number of years, never missed being present. He was, at any rate, never absent when the hundred guineas was run for, which he gave for horses that had been out with the stag-hounds.

The gambling pure and simple which, for a long series of years, was a leading feature of the Ascot festival, is not now tolerated, although unlimited betting is permitted. There were E. O. tables by the score, the owners of which were made to subscribe a hundred guineas for the benefit of the racing fund. These tables were established in tents and marquees, where all were suited who pleased to try their fortune; even those who gambled with pence were made welcome. In these "Royal old days," Ascot, in the way of the times, was quite as fashionable as it is to-day. Every house and cottage within two miles of the course was occupied either by pleasure-seekers, or persons who had business to transact in connection with the horse-races. The rents charged were exorbitant; the persons who could give accommodation having learned to make hay while the sun was shining. But sport was good, and the surroundings were exciting. A feature of the scene, which has long since been dispensed with, was the hundreds of booths erected for the accommodation of visitors. Some of these canvas houses were most commodious, and were used both for dining and sleeping in. The King and Queen and "the first gentleman of Europe" used to pass along the lines of the booths.

"Royal Ascot" is richly endowed with racing prizes, and it is gratifying to know that, although the sum of added money is very large, the meeting is not only self-supporting, but profitable. It is but fair to give much of the credit of the success of the Ascot meetings of recent years to Lord Hardwicke, who, when he officiated as Master of the Buckhounds, did all he could to add to the attractiveness of a meeting which had long been celebrated as providing one of the most fashionable gatherings of London society. Ascot, which has been a seat of racing for so long a period, has seen several generations of sportsmen come and go; but to-day it is more gay and brilliant; more attractive to fine ladies and gay cavaliers than it ever was before. Princes and Princesses continue to give it their patronage, and the most celebrated horses of the kingdom compete on its green turf for the liberal prizes with which the meeting has been endowed.

It is not so easy as it may appear to compile an exact history of any racecourse. As regards Ascot, one writer tells us that the racecourse, or, as he calls it, the "Manor of Ascot," is private property, whilst another authority distinctly states that it is "the property of the Crown," and that, in consequence, no rent is exacted for the racecourse. Fees of all kinds, however, are taken in the various enclosures, and, as a matter of course, admission to the grand stand and paddock has to be paid for as at other meetings; but as much of the money taken is given to be raced for, the charges may be tolerated. The accommodation now provided for the public at Ascot is something like what it should be; although it still might be improved, it is wonderfully good when compared with what it was half a century since.

The first stand erected at Ascot for the accommodation of the public was built by, or at the cost of, a Mr. Slingsby, one of the Royal tradesmen of the period, a master bricklayer, who was a favourite with His Majesty "King George III. of blessed memory." This stand, which was a substantial structure, capable of affording a view of the races to about 650 persons, was in use till about the year 1840. Two or three years before that date, a movement for the erection of a larger and more convenient structure took place, and resulted in the formation of a company with a capital of £10,000, subscribed in hundred-pound shares. The money, after considerable difficulty, having been found, the chief corner-stone of the building was laid in its place by the Earl of Errol, on the 16th of January, 1839, and the occasion of the opening of the stand was signalised by the presence of Her Majesty, who sent for the jockey who rode the winner of the Ascot Stakes, a boy of the name of Bell, and after complimenting him on his skill and judgment as a rider, kindly presented him with a ten-pound note. The excellent riding of this tiny jockey excited an immense amount of admiration, the boy being almost a mere child, and only weighing fifty-six lbs. When before the Queen, upon being asked his weight by Her Majesty, he replied, much to the amusement of the Royal suite: "Please, ma'am, master says as how I must never tell my weight."

The constitution of the new stand company provided for the application of the profits realised in the following fashion: To begin with a dividend of five per cent. to be paid to the shareholders, but curiously enough, according to the constitution of the company, this dividend fell to be paid before the wages of the stand servants! When the dividend, the check-takers and other servants had been paid, a sum of £500 was then to be allotted for the redemption of five of the shares, selected by ballot out of the total number. Of the money which might be left after that had been done, two-thirds was ordained to be applied to the enrichment of the race fund, and one-third to be divided among the shares, by way of a bonus, so that, in the course of twenty years, the stand would become altogether the property of the racing fund. This, as it may be called, Tontine plan of dealing with the shares of the Ascot Grand Stand proved, in a sense, a little gold mine for the shareholders who were so fortunate as not to be balloted out of the concern, which, from the first, was exceedingly remunerative.

In the very first year, the substantial benefit accrued of £700, whilst a bonus of eight and a half per cent. was paid to the shareholders. As in each year the number of participating shares became reduced, the dividend, of course, was correspondingly increased in amount, the final dividend on the last five shares having been the handsome one of £175. It should be stated here, that whilst all the profits of the stand and paddock were absorbed by the company for division in the mode which has been stated, the Master of the Buckhounds drew money from those "betting" on the course, for booths, also for stands for carriages. The sum taken in the first two or three years was moderate enough, but from £300 taken in the first year, it had increased in the third racing season to £1,500, and the money received from these sources of income is annually increasing. About £15,000 were expended a few years ago in improving and adding to the accommodation provided by the grand stand, every department of which is now regulated by the Master of the Buckhounds; and as the renewed lease obtained from the Crown has still over forty years to run, it is probable that additional improvements will be entered upon.

The Ascot Meeting is the next great event in the turf world to the Epsom Summer Carnival. How rich and varied the stakes are which are now run on the Royal heath, has been indicated. The various courses are in fine condition; and the attendance at the meeting, which lasts for four days, and with which no racing fixture is allowed to clash, is, in fine weather, enormous; and, although it appears to be impossible to eliminate the welshing element, Ascot is kept tolerably free as yet, notwithstanding its proximity to London, from the rowdy element.

During the lifetime of Prince Albert, Her Majesty frequently patronised the meeting, riding up the course with a numerous suite in what was called "Ascot State." The Prince and Princess of Wales now take Her Majesty's place in this ceremonial, and as they come upon the scene receive a most cordial welcome from the assembled thousands. The fashionable day _par excellence_ is "the Cup day," a day on which the upper ten assemble on the Royal heath in their greatest numbers, "the ladies ablaze with dresses of gorgeous hues, tempered with trimmings of taste." This racing trophy--the Cup--which many owners of race-horses would rather win than any other race however richly it might be endowed, was founded, in 1771, by the Duke of Cumberland, the subscription being limited to 5 gs. each.

VI.

The rise and progress of the Goodwood Meeting may be briefly recorded. Like Ascot, it is one of the fashionable gatherings of the season. The Duke of Richmond and Gordon, on hospitable thoughts intent, opens wide the doors of his commodious mansion; but as he can only entertain a limited number of his own personal friends, the wonder is that the stands are so crowded with spectators. The distance of Goodwood Park from London is more than twice the distance of Ascot, and yet as many persons seem to frequent the one meeting as the other; hundreds are contributed from Brighton, Portsmouth, and other towns, and hundreds go from and return to London every day of the meeting. All the towns and villages in the vicinity of Goodwood Park are crowded by the strangers who have come to assist at the meeting, Chichester, in particular, being the abiding-place of a host of visitors. The houses and cottages round about fill with lodgers, and country seats are crowded with guests, all eager to take part in the brilliant scene which, in fine weather, is worth making a day's journey to see.

The annual meeting in the Duke of Richmond's park forms a fine theme for the pen of the descriptive reporter, and has been "gushed" over, in certain of the daily newspapers, in "a perfect paroxysm of word-painting phrases" during the last twenty years on each succeeding anniversary of the race. Nor is the work of the "Economist," who translated the silks and satins of the toilettes of "England's fairest daughters" into vulgar money's worth, to be ignored. His estimate that the dresses and "other belongings" of the four hundred and fifty most fashionable women, from their dainty morocco shoes and silken sandals, up to the wondrous head fabrics which crowned the high-born, delicate ladies seen at the two great fashionable meetings of the season, would cost at the least £200 for each person, is, perhaps, even too moderate; the total cost of the toilettes of that army of the fair would, perhaps, on the average of the Goodwood season, be full a £100,000. Was it not, for instance, recorded by the public press in a scandal case, that the Ascot and Goodwood trousseau of one fair but frail dame, of twelve dresses and the accordant "other things" of shoes, fans, gloves, lace and lingerie, had been charged £1,128? The "Economist's" argument is that horse-racing, despite its evils, must be tolerated for the good it does to trade, for the crowds it sends over the railways, for the gospel of eating, drinking, and dressing which it so eloquently preaches, all employing tradespeople, and, consequently, circulating money.

Coming to the facts connected with the institution of the Goodwood Meeting, it has to be stated on the authority of various historians, that the meeting was founded in a sportive moment by some officers of the Sussex Militia, in conjunction with the members of a local hunt club. The races so organised first took place in the course of the month of April, 1802, a good beginning being made with a purse of £613, little more than the half of which was public money, the sweepstakes entered for amounting to £300.

The meeting was in every respect a successful one, and was continued in 1803 and 1804, but with less popularity, the subscription having fallen off to a very serious extent. In 1810, there were but two days of sport, the money run for being a little over £200. Nor up till the year 1827 was there much improvement; till 1825 the public money subscribed did not total up to a large sum, it varied from £80 to £300, whilst the money received as sweepstakes amounted to something between £60 and £600. Two years later, as has been stated, a great improvement began in the financial resources of the meeting, as was obvious enough from the amount of money which was run for, the total sum in that year exceeding £2,000. In 1829 the racecourse was altered and improved, and the amount of cash expended in the shape of stakes was £3,285. The year following the new grand stand was opened; and in 1831 the Royal purse of 100 gs. was procured to be annually run for.

From this period Goodwood races made great progress; and between the years 1832 and 1835, the average annual amount of the stakes contested for was £6,000. In 1837 the amount had increased to £11,145; and what with the large sum of money spent upon improvements by the Duke of Richmond, and the personal exertions and good management of the late Lord George Bentinck, this meeting made such wonderful progress, that in time it not only rivalled, but even eclipsed many of the other principal meetings.

In 1845, the value of the stakes run for amounted to the large sum of £24,909, a substantial proof that the title of Princely Goodwood was not misapplied. These races, however, fell off somewhat after Lord George Bentinck's death, but yet rank in the first class.

Ascot and Goodwood have been dwelt upon at some length, when compared with the few pages devoted to Epsom and Doncaster; but in the case of these meetings, a considerable portion of space has of necessity been devoted to the Derby and St. Leger, which helps to make an even balance.

VII.

I do not intend at present to say much about gate-money meetings. The premier position must undoubtedly be accorded to that held at Manchester. The best proof of the success which has attended the company carrying on business at New Barnes is, that it has been able to pay enormous dividends to its shareholders, and that its hundred-pound shares, when any are offered for sale, command six or seven times the original price. The Whitsuntide meeting at Manchester, when the weather is favourable for such out-door sports, is attended by hundreds of thousands of persons, all of whom have to pay for their admission to the race-ground at the rate of one shilling or sixpence a head--those desirous of making use of the grand stand, the paddock, and other accommodations, pay for these at the usual rate. It is but fair to say that the vast assemblage of spectators at Manchester conduct themselves wonderfully well. When anything exciting occurs--when a giant roar is set up, it is of course "the voice of the people" that is heard--it is the horny handed "sons of toil" chiefly who rush to New Barnes on the great racing days, and in every respect the scene presented is a contrast to the shows of Ascot and Goodwood, where the "silks and satins" of the upper ten outshine the cottons of Lancashire. But the aim of its promoters is achieved, inasmuch as it brings plenty of grist to their mill, ten thousand shillings counts as five hundred pounds, and ten times that amount is "money," even in "brass-loving" Lancashire.

There is abundance of racing at Manchester, many of the handicaps being enriched by the addition of munificent sums of money. But in respect to the "added money," is it all gold that glitters even at Manchester? It has been complained at any rate that, when the management seem to give a pound, they in reality only give half of that sum; they get back, such is the accusation made, a moiety of what they give in entrance fees or in shares of surplus money from the disposal of winners of selling races. In this matter of what is called "added money," a writer, who comments on the subject, explains that such sums must be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt. For instance, in the matter of a Nursery plate in which a hundred pounds is given from the race fund, it must be taken into account that thirty-two subscribers pay three sovereigns each, so that in such case all that is really given is four pounds, the subscribers running their horses for ninety-six pounds of their own money. There is no charge of any kind made for admission to the heath during the four days of Ascot, and yet the value of the stakes run for there in 1881, as has been stated, amounted to more than thirty-two thousand pounds.

The principal shareholders of the Manchester racing company are reputed to be bookmakers, and if the meeting did not pay as a meeting, there is such a plethora of gambling, of laying and backing, as, in the four days at Whitsuntide alone, will be represented in hundreds of thousands of pounds. It is quite certain, in regard to this racecourse, that the amount of money taken at the gates, no matter what may be said, is really enormous; on the Cup day, the mere shillings of head money, not taking into account the receipts of the stands, will be over five thousand pounds.

The controversy which has raged at intervals over the establishment of what have in a somewhat contemptuous spirit been called "gate meetings," has not ceased. "Prejudice," say they who approve of this system of racing, is "ill to kill"; but it is far better that a race meeting should be made self-supporting than that all kinds of contemptible begging should be resorted to to keep up the pastime in the half-hearted way that it used to be kept up in many localities, by appeals to the lord of the manor and other country gentlemen, by donations from licensed victuallers and miscellaneous shopkeepers who are supposed to reap pecuniary benefit from the bringing together of crowds of people to witness the sport, or by doles from interested railway companies.

It would be easy to prove that all the successful race meetings of the period are, in a certain sense, "gate-money meetings--Epsom, Ascot, Doncaster, York, Goodwood, and Liverpool, as well as some others." The charges made for the accommodation of the patrons of these meetings are so high that they produce a large profit. The promoters of the sport can therefore well afford to allow all who cannot afford three or four guineas for the privileges of their stands and paddocks to see what they can of the sport for nothing, and thousands upon thousands avail themselves of the chances offered. To say that many hundred thousand persons obtain a gratuitous view of the Derby, Oaks, and St. Leger, is only to tell the truth.

As an argument, say some of the writers on this subject, what more would you have than the crowds which patronise the meetings of Manchester and Derby? They are four or five times larger than the crowds that assemble at Newmarket even to witness the Cesarewitch or Cambridgeshire. That is so, doubtless; but in reply it may be asked, what of the contributing area of population as between the two places? Newmarket has only a few thousand residents, but the Manchester racecourse, with its yearly half-dozen meetings, draws the spectators of racing from an immediate population of more than a million persons.

It is difficult to say how a race meeting should be constituted; it is a matter in which there is room for argument, and on which much may be said on both sides of the question; and as nothing succeeds like success, why should there not be gate-money meetings, if the people are willing to support them? So far as the writer knows, it is not the duty of any particular body of persons to provide gratuitous pastimes of any kind for the people, especially horse-racing, which is a sport of a very expensive description. The fact that the "gate meetings" recently opened "pay," settles the question, and renders any defence of the policy which has resulted in their establishment unnecessary. That they afford opportunity for a still greater amount of gambling, and that at some of them the "sport" is exceedingly poor, is only what, under such circumstances, is to be expected; still, as all familiar with the turf and its surroundings very well know, it is as easy, nay, easier, to institute a big gamble on a contemptible race as on a contest for a St. Leger.

The author has no intention of saying anything in the meantime about the modern meetings instituted during recent years, as for instance, those charming reunions held at Kempton and Sandown Parks. Some old race meetings, too, are also passed over without notice, such as that held at Stockbridge; a time may come, however, when it will be apropos to run over the racing records of such institutions, as also to furnish a brief record of several meetings that have been long since relegated to the domains of past history.

THE L. S. D. OF THE TURF.

I.

The question of greatest importance in connection with horse-racing is--does it pay? Does it pay to breed horses or buy expensive yearlings, and run them merely for the stakes which can be won? Certainly not! The race-horses of the period are mostly used for gambling with, and, on the average, do not earn in stakes enough money to pay trainers' bills and miscellaneous expenses. It is chiefly as factors in the "great game" that "yearlings" bring those extraordinary prices so often chronicled. Horses of utility do not fetch sensational sums as yearlings. Some of the animals, however, which bring small prices at the yearling sales may, if thought suitable, be bought for hunters, or for the use of ladies. Messrs. Sangers, of Astley's, have before now bought horses of choice strains of blood to perform in their circus.

How can horses which cost two thousand pounds and upwards be made to pay, except by betting? When an animal is not quite good enough to figure as a Derby or Cup horse, he may, as the phrase goes, be "bottled up" and kept to win a large sum of money in a big handicap. That is the way some men manage to make their horses pay; but even that plan is precarious, so many are playing the same game. As to winning money on the turf without betting, it has been shown that, with the aggregate expenses at double the sum which can be won, it is, as a rule, impossible. The majority of those now running horses on the turf are simply gamblers, many of them having gone into the business on a large scale.

A round dozen of the most enthusiastic supporters of racing, it is said, do not bet, but are said to breed and run horses for their own pleasure; but among the many who have registered their colours will there be a dozen? Mr. Houldsworth is one, and Lord Falmouth was another. His lordship is reputed to have once betted with and lost a sixpence to a lady--the wife of his trainer, in fact--to whom the coin was in due time presented, set in a brooch, and surrounded with costly gems.

It has often been observed, as a curious feature of the racing world, that the horses of gentlemen who do not themselves bet become at times more prominent in the turf market than the animals of those who bet heavily themselves, either _in propriâ personâ_, or by the aid of a commissioner! How comes that? It is probably because the owner does not bet that the public, believing in his _bona fides_, and that his horses will run on their merits, and independent of all betting considerations, rush into the market, and by largely supporting them, bring them to what is called a short price. Still the horses of some reputed non-bettors often figure in the quotations of the turf market in a rather suspicious way, just as if they had been given over to a clique of bookmakers to do with them whatever they pleased. That most of the gentlemen who keep race-horses use them as instruments of gambling, has been often made manifest to those who can read the signs of the times. Instances of such being the case are daily thrust upon us.