ASHGILL. 59 



The love of sport for sport's sake seems to be 

 bred in a Yorkshireman, and the inconveniences 

 that the tykes put up with, and the fatigue they 

 underwent in pre-railway days in order that they 

 might occasionally attend the York and Doncaster 

 Meetings, would appear incredible in a less 

 sporting county. 



Men have been known to walk from North- 

 allerton to York, and even Doncaster, to see the 

 horse they fancied run, and that when they had 

 no pecuniary interest in the race. 



With the love of sport so strongly ingrained in 

 the nature of the inhabitants it was only natural 

 that race meetings should sjiring up in small 

 country places ; and although the abolition of 

 these small meetings at the instance of the Jockey 

 Club has undoubtedly been for the benefit of the 

 Turf under its present altered conditions, one 

 cannot but express some feeling of regret that 

 their places knows them no more ; and that the 

 small owner, the man who owned one, or at the 

 most, two horses, and who was the principal 

 supporter of these meetings, can now no longer 

 afford to own a racehorse, and has to satisfy his 

 love of the sport by watching and probably betting 

 on the horses owned by some big man and trained 

 in some gigantic and palatial establishment. 



It was only to be looked for that such a natural 

 racecourse as Middleham Moor should be utilised 

 for the purpose of sport, and in the latter part of 



