CHAPTERS FROM TURF HISTORY 



1833 will in future deform the history of the 

 sport. Cromwell once said that England had 

 need of a Constable, and racing will always 

 require the strictest supervision of the Jockey 

 Club. There are men of every type who follow 

 the game, and who are neither finished examples 

 of moral excellence nor of the standard of just 

 men made perfect. In the early Victorian period 

 the authorities were as drowsy and indulgent 

 as the bishops of the eighteenth century, and 

 offences went undetected and unpunished. But 

 in these days even Stewards of minor meetings 

 have asserted themselves, conscious that they 

 will be supported by the appellate tribunal ; and 

 no owner, no trainer at the head of his profession, 

 and no leading jockey can expect to receive 

 the smallest mercy when the Stewards of the 

 Jockey Club are satisfied of the evidence of 

 guilt. 



It is not too much to say that betting as it 

 prevailed in former days has practically ceased. 

 Betting in small sums takes place extensively 

 among the lower orders of the community. The 

 facilities for it have grown. The most ingenious 

 and the most active canvassing is employed. 

 Columns of advertisements appear in some news- 

 papers, as insidious as money-lenders' letters and 

 generally as misleading. As Voltaire wrote 

 shrewdly of the Cathohc priests, so of these 

 practitioners it may also be said : Notre credulUe 

 fait toute leur science. Again, the modern institution 

 of starting-price offices accounts for a great deal 

 of betting in the aggregate. These offices, with 

 their elaborate rules, their telegraphic codes, and 



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