WHAT THE TURF HAS COME TO.

There are no good seasoned horses in these times, for without going very closely through the record, we may say that almost every important all-aged race of the closing year, handicap or otherwise, has been won by a three-year-old; the Northamptonshire Stakes, the Chester Cup, the two Epsom Spring Handicaps, the two Newmarket Autumn Handicaps, the Ascot Cup, the Goodwood Cup, the Goodwood Stakes, and so forth. Again, look at the effect, not only on horses, but upon men. Despite their early practice, and the number constantly at work, there are not half a dozen jockeys in England who can ride a really fine race. They can bustle, and scurry, and hurry all the way home from the post, but how few have the head or patience to steady themselves for a finish, alongside such men as Chaloner or French? Nothing tends more to destroy the fine art of race riding than these short spins.

Let us turn for a moment to a concomitant evil-the false start. Where, saving occasionally in the Derby, do we see an hour wasted at the post when a race is run over any distance of ground? But in the five-furlong business a lad must obey his orders, and get well off. His fines will be paid for him, his very suspension made up for; and so he puts his tongue in his cheek at the luckless starter, and still keeps "niggling" his mare to the front, And this is sport? The Lord of the Levant stands to win twenty thousand over it. "The Double Shuffle" has been pulled any time you like for these two years, and that young mannikin will have an annuity settled on him if he wins.

It is after this fashion that a large majority of the meetings are got up. There are people who make fortunes as "promoters" of races, just as there are promoters of companies. They fix on a suitable site for a course, on a good line of railway, or handy to London. They draw up a number of selling stakes and chicken handicaps; get the use of three or four leading turfites' names as stewards, and the thing is done. There is the gate-money, the entrance-money, the groundmoney for the booths and stands to be erected on; then they generally make the handicaps themselves; and if a winner brings two or three hundred over his entered price, at least half of this goes to "the fund," i.e., to the clerks and secretaries, and so forth, who farm the sport. Of course, it is only right and proper that a man should be fairly paid for his work, particularly when he carries this to a successful issue. But the greater the success the more is this kind of business to be denounced. The scene at a station on the morning of any such meeting adjacent to a town, is very like to what it was when a prize-fight was about to come off. All the scum of London, the roughs and thieves, is here gathered together, and the more respectable travellers are often openly robbed on their way to the carriages. On the course it is even worse. Welshers and bullies ply their trade with impunity, of which we may here give one recent example. A person went and backed a horse at a list, not put up at the side of the ropes, but exhibited in the booth of a duly licensed publican. The horse won, and

the backer returned to the booth for his money. The list man was at his post, duly took the ticket from his customer, and tore it up in his face, declaring with fearful oaths, that the stake had been put upon something else! Three or four other ruffians then set upon their hapless victim, knocking his hat over his eyes, otherwise ill-using and endeavouring to rob him. And all this happened in the tent of a man who was paying a rent, and so, as it were, under the eye of the management! Then, within the same week or so, a firm of highly respectable betting men hired three low prize-fighters, part of whose duty it was to follow another betting man up and down the chief stand, at one of these minor metropolitan meetings, with threats of murdering him then and there, or of throwing him off the top of the stand. "I was very much afraid, and had to seek the protection of respectable people. I gave my watch, chain, and money to other parties to mind." This person's offence was that he had been instrumental in putting down an illegal swindling system of betting by means of lists, although it is only right to add that the firm who hired the men to murder him are known as "very good men!" Have there ever been worse doings than these at a prize-fight? People are now congratulating one another that such sport has at length been put a stop to by the Legislature, but the strong arm of the law will very soon have again to be exercised over these minor race meetings, where ruffianism, brutality, and robbery are as rampant as ever they were by the ring-side. Nay! the fighting men would do something for the protection of their patrons, whereas the racing men would see a murder committed without much caring to interfere; and what with "welshing" and "besting," there is nothing more likely than that somebody will be before long mobbed to death on a race course. The only wonder is that something of the sort has not happened already.

Even the country meetings are pretty much in the same hands. The county families and the respectable townspeople, as a rule, keep aloof from "the races," once so pleasant a holiday. There is a course we know well, within an hour's ride or so of town, where, in former days, the good old duke set the example by generally sending a horse, and always coming over himself, to meet his friends and neighbours. Now, beyond a few horses straggling in on the previous evening, there is scarcely anybody to be seen about until the mid-day train is due from London, and this happily delivers its unwelcome cargo at a temporary siding, without ever reaching the town itself. The Master of the hounds is busy amongst the cubs, the lord lieutenant is shooting partridges, four or five fields off, and the duke has shut himself up at home. Admiral Rous, speaking of the very early meetings in the year, says that the country gentlemen do not take the slightest interest in them; but we go further, and maintain that, unless bitten by the betting mania, country people care little for country races. The crowds are made up from the large cities and towns like London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and so on; and some of these visitors go a racing almost every week of their lives. It is very noticeable how you see the same faces over and over again.

With such a round of business, or with so much money depending on a single event, the outside world may begin to understand how it is that a yearling unbroken colt is worth one or two thousand guineas,

But there has been a deal of flash about this kind of thing, and the race horse market is gradually dropping to a more wholesome tone. Indeed, this was far too good for Messrs. Tattersall, who had to issue a notice that they could not continue to sell yearlings on the same terms as they had done. The fact was, that the young noblemen and gentlemen who, amidst so much cheering, opposed each other with so much spirit, frequently forgot to pay for the horses they bought. It was, indeed, something of a joint concern after all. If the colt turned out well, all well and good; if not, somebody had to suffer beyond the free bidder, and so breeders were requested to get in their own bad debts. Moreover, as a rule, these top-price yearlings do not turn out well. It has been said that, amongst the worst horsemen we have, are riding-masters and cavalry officers; and owners and trainers would seem to be amongst the worse judges of race horses. Mr. Chaplin gave 1,500 guineas for that over-grown wretch, Pedagogue, who never could be trained; while at the same sale, Hermit (one of the exceptions still) cost him only a thousand; and the highest priced yearling we ever saw sold, knocked down at Middle Park for 2,500 guineas, was never worth as many shillings. A half-starved young animal, whether he be a horse or an ox, rarely quite recovers from such neglect; but the other extreme is almost as bad, and there can be no question that a strong proportion of our young racing stock is over-forced for sale. The very large breeding establishments, notwithstanding the high averages realised of late, turn out comparatively but few great winners, and many of these things never look so well again as they do under the hammer, but fly all to pieces when put into work. Admiral Rousand we like to point out argument in this way-said, in 1860: "A two-year-old, whose growth has been forced by good food, is as fit to go into work as a three-year-old reared on grass and hay. And, again, writing about the same period: "The French have two impediments to success, not easily surmounted; very little good turf to train upon, and we imagine that there is no hay made in France good enough to feed a race horse in training." But, in 1866, the Admiral had come to a very decided correction of his previous opinion: "In all our great horse breeding establishments for public sales, the ground is too limited, and the paddocks are tainted by the number of occupants. In Count de Lagrange's stud, in France, I am informed, that the yearlings are never shut up, but are allowed an extensive range of pasture. This is the true policy; it stands to reason they have an enormous advantage over our stall-fed stock; but, as long as the yearlings fetch fancy prices, there will be no reformation or improvement." This reads somewhat strangely by the two-year-old, forced upon good food, and so forth; but then Gladiateur had appeared in the interim.

"

And this is what the present flourishing condition of the Turf has come to. We have gentlemen trained to the practice of systematic deceit. "The modern racing man, with a few brilliant exceptions, has but one idea-how to get his horse well into a handicap by any means.' -Rous. Gentlemen buy horses that they cannot pay for, and make bets that they cannot meet. Many a man of high family has of late years continued to appear on a race course only on sufferance. He is at the mercy of the coarse, self-made leg, who might order him out of the ring at a moment's notice, as the other knows well enough. Young

men of fortune are ruined before they come into possession of their estates, and in the hands, and at the bidding of money lenders who use them as they choose. Only conceive how the self-respect, the chivalrous feeling, the high bearing that should go to make and mark an English gentleman, must die out under such a state of things as this! The grand old school of sportsman held his trainer, and his jockey, and the betting man at a distance; but now, of course, all these distinctions are fast fading away. The destroyer and his victim appear together on the most friendly terms, ride in the same carriage, and sit at the same table. It is not so long since that the best dinner that could be procured in London was ordered by two noble members of the Jockey Club, to which they sat down in company with a couple of jockeys and a trainer as their invited guests. Lord Egremont once sent for old Cliffe after dinner, to whom he gave a glass of wine and a slice of melon; but seeing his jockey looking rather perplexed over his dessert, his lordship asked how he liked it? "Well, my lord," was the answer, "it's very good, but I think it is hardly done enough." There should be as good a story to be told of the fine wines and made dishes served to so select a party

"Where all are friends, and in the self-same room
The peer salutes his intimate, the groom;

Where Greeks and nobles crowd around one board,
And here a blackleg sits, and there a lord."

It is to be hoped that the action of Day v. Rous will be proceeded with, if it only serve to direct more attention to the present state of the Turf. Nowhere is vigorous reform more needed, and it is time that the Legislature should take some cognisance of these rapidly increasing abuses. The influence of the Jockey Club is as nought, for many of the evils are as rife at Newmarket as at any plate meeting in the kingdom. The writer of this paper has given some study to the subject; he has seen the Derby and Oaks run for five-and-twenty times, and he has had the honour of some conversation with a leading member of the Jockey Club, who, after bringing out some of the best horses, has given up racing in disgust. But it would be preferable to rest the case on the evidence of the greatest Turf authority we have —that is, Admiral Rous-as given from time to time, under his own hand. Let us sum this up; eight years since he said: "The modern practice of commencing races on the 15th of February, and not ending the season before the 15th of November, is a crying iniquity, which almost requires an interposition from Parliament." This iniquity is now greater than ever. Eighteen years since he said: "Every great handicap offers a premium to fraud;" and these premiums are still steadily on the increase; while we would go on to say that the minor handicaps, the disgrace of Newmarket, are quite as pernicious in their degree. If early racing, and especially early two-year-old racing, be an iniquity, as no doubt it is, let Parliament interpose. Nothing could be easier of enactment, or more wholesome in its influence, than that no two-year-old race should be run before May-day, the time from which, until a comparatively recent period, a colt took his age as a two-yearold. Again, let no race in which three-year-olds and upward are engaged, be run over any less distance than a mile; and, in a handicap,

let no horse carry less than 6st. 71b., a stone more than the minimum weight at present. Of course, all this would tend to lessen the amount of sport, or, in other words, to reduce the opportunities for gambling, and to put a lot of wretched animals out of training-one of the great objects to be aimed at. We have not much sympathy with a goodly moiety of the 500,000 people, who would be far better engaged behind their counters, or taking their holiday, as heretofore, at Greenwich or Gravesend, instead of dabbling in the business of racing. It is an unwholesome era in the history of the sport when a butcher's boy has a betting-book, and a peer of the realm only shows upon suffrance. "I will not ignore the enemy which always threatens our extinction, 'excessive gambling,' or the obnoxious tendencies which are transparent when large sums of money are dependent upon the issue of a race. Betting on a great scale frequently produces grievous results, and the wholesome excitement of a fine race or the patriotic inducement of improving the breed of horses become secondary considerations." So said Admiral Rous as recently as 1866, and with this every true sportsman will agree. With regard even to the morals of the nation, it is the duty of the Government to look further into this gigantic and still spreading evil. Let another inquiry, under the sanction of Parliament, be instituted, and let Admiral Rous be the first witness called.-The Broadway.

Tempted by the remembrance of our enjoyment of the van trip in the preceding summer, my family eagerly demanded another trial, but decided to change the scene of the venue, and accordingly named the Rye House for their destination. The older daughters quoted history, and urged their longing to scrutinise the remains of that ancient buiding, rendered so celebrious in connexion with the plot for the assassination of the Royal Stuart; whilst the juniors quoted the Eastern Counties Time-tables, and other equally veracious chronicles in favour of their wishes. When I urged the vulgarity of so many of its visitors, and the unpleasantness which might follow being in contact with them, I was reminded that Thursday would again prove successful in providing against this evil, and at last with much persuasion's efforts they succeeded in conquering my assumed reluctance.

Several of our last year's party also desired that they might be again remembered, and two or three more being found to fill the places vacant by the removal of my old acquaintances, we again issued our invitations for the middle of August.

The month was changed for the double reason-first of hoping for