384 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



BRUSSELS RACES. 



Racing here is but in its infancy. Wiiether 

 It may grow into popularity, and become as 

 national as it is v\'ith us, must be left for time 

 to discover. What strikes an Englishman 

 most is the total want of animation on the 

 course ; there being few tents, no gypsies, no 

 feasting, no betting, no promenading of the 

 fairer sex. 



There is something else also very unpalat- 

 able to the feelings of an Englishman, to be 

 touched by a firelock or bayonet, in order to 

 keep the road clear. With us the crack of 

 the course-clearer's whip seems more con- 

 genial with our habits, as being less connected 

 with tyranny, which the sight of a soldier in- 

 terfering with us in our amusements and plea- 

 sures, seems naturally to create in the breast 

 of an Englishman. There was an incident in 

 one of these races, which we shall leave to an 

 eye-witness to describe. But before he comes 

 to the race, he says : — 



" The course is an oblong of about one 

 English mile, in tolerable order, the turns 

 difficult, and the whole of a very coarse and 

 rather long turf, well fenced in with ropes, 

 and kept by soldiers placed at every twenty 

 yards, whose rigidness is such that not a soul 

 is ever allowed to pass from one side to the 

 other. Even the jockeys, the moment they 

 arrive, are accompanied by two mounted 

 gens-d'armes to the scales in order that they 

 may have no communication en route. All 

 this is very well ; but it represses the natural 

 animation and excitement, the hurry, the 

 bustle, the anxiety that constitutes, if not all, 

 part of our enjoyment in England. Perhaps 

 there is a hidden policy in thus accustoming 

 the people to suffer an armed force to be the 



perpetual participators in their amuseraeniau 

 Doubtless there is : but I will venture to pro- 

 phesy, that on the Continent racing will never 

 become an amusement with the humbler 

 classes, as long as every anxious gazer, who 

 stretches forward his neck a little beyond the 

 line prescribed by the martinet on duty, is 

 liable to have an inch of cold steel in his 

 ribs." 



After having described two races, which 

 were well contested, he says : — 



" The next race for Horses of all kinds, 

 perhaps afforded more amusement than was 

 ever witnessed on a course. 



" Long before the first bell rang, a lad, 

 mounted on a cart-mare, or rather an Ar- 

 dennes (which have some little breeding), 

 with tail sweeping the ground, a blue smock- 

 frock, and a green plush cap, attempted to 

 pass through the sentinels into the ground. 

 Of course he was refused ; nor would they 

 admit him till the Count Duval (President of 

 the Jockey Club) had certified, that, having 

 complied with the requisite conditions, Co- 

 cotte was going to run. Fastened between 

 the flaps and girths, were two large pigs of 

 lead ; and, with high demi-pique saddle and 

 military bridle, such a caricature was never 

 witnessed. 



" The history is this : — A farmer in the 

 environs had bought a cast artillery mare, and 

 finding it faster than his team, thought he 

 stood as good a chance as another of winning 

 the hundred pounds given for Horses of ail 

 breeds. Some wag worked on the good 

 man's sporting ideas to such a point, that he 

 not only fancied she could run, but entered 

 her, would hear nothing against it, and offered 

 to bet a thousand francs (a great sum for a 

 Belgian) his mare distanced the others ! 



