RACING IN THE l PROVINCES: 95 



formerly held high rank amongst weight-for-age contests, has 

 been recently modernised into a handicap, in which quality is 

 usually conspicuous by its absence. 



This quintet therefore Ascot, Epsom, Doncaster, Good- 

 wood, and York which have been outlined rather than de- 

 scribed, may be taken as the only open meetings ; open, that is, 

 in the sense of free admission to their respective courses, 

 which continue to hold their own against the wealth and 

 seductions of gate-money gatherings; yet do these five mighty 

 reunions find it necessary from time to time to alter their 

 programmes, and keep step in the quick march of the day, lest 

 they too should be fain to take their place in the rear of the 

 ' Companies.' 



Where the trainer is happy, there will the horses be gathered 

 together. 



Of Newmarket, ample notice has already been taken in these 

 pages ; and Newmarket can no longer claim to be altogether 

 an open meeting. Free pass there still is for pedestrians and 

 horsemen to. the Heath, but heavy toll is levied on carriages 

 on both sides of the ditch. 



It would be tedious here to enumerate all the old-fashioned 

 county meetings which have suffered from, or succumbed to, 

 the new limited liability undertakings, or to the rule for which 

 they must ultimately be held responsible that a sum of not 

 less than 300 sovs. shall be added to each day's racing; yet it 

 may be well to devote a few words to one provincial race- 

 course, which has survived all vicissitudes, to be still regarded 

 as the ne plus ultra of enjoyment by those who love racing 

 and who abhor a crowd. 



The ' Calendar months ' include no fixture more keenly 

 anticipated and relished than those three summer days on the 

 downs at Danebury. Stockbridge, to which the Bibury Club 

 meeting was removed in 1831,* when local support failed at its 

 birthplace on the Cotswolds, has seldom, if ever, attempted to 

 provide the rich prizes which fire the ambition or the avarice 



i On the motion of Lord Worcester (afterwards jth Duke of Beaufort). 



