TURF. 387 



may fairly infer their immenfe properties 

 to have operated as preventatives. 



This fport, that has for many years been 

 fo exceedingly prevalent, is at length de- 

 clining very fall among the middle and 

 inferior clalTes of people ; and of this di- 

 minution the annual contribution of two 

 guineas each to government is a. fufficient 

 proof, when it is known, that all the 

 horfes that run, paid, or received for- 

 feit, in the united kingdoms laft year, 

 did not exceed eight hundred : a number 

 that does not much furpafs the averaged 

 half of horfes fupported in training fome 

 few years paft ; a circumftance that re- 

 quires little farther corroboration, than the 

 numerous plates advertifed m d liferent parts, 

 for the two or three laft vears, that were 

 never run for, "-^ for want oj horfes.*'' 



* This falling off may.be juftly attributed 

 to a combination of obftacles ; the con- 

 flantly increaiing expence of tr/^ning,* 

 the minifterial tax, the profeffional dupli- 

 city (or rather ^family deception) of ri- 



* Gamblers are known by the appellation of ** The 

 Black Legged Family." 



C C 2 DER3, 



