THE TURF 149 



there can be little fear. Speaking gener- 

 ally, however, nothing fluctuates more than 

 the scene of country racing. Newton, in 

 Lancashire, still keeps its place ; but Knuts- 

 ford and Preston decline ; and Oxford, once 

 so good, we may consider gone. At the 

 latter place, indeed, it has been Dilly, 

 Sadler, and Day then Day, Sadler, and 

 Dilly winning everything till country 

 gentlemen became tired of the changes 

 being rung upon them. 



It was high time that a change, to a certain 

 extent, should be made in country racing 

 but in some respects it has gone too far 

 we allude to the value of the prizes. A 

 hundred years ago, breeding and training 

 of race-horses costing comparatively little, 

 running for fifty pound plates might have 

 paid. Eclipse, indeed, was nothing but a 

 plate-horse, having, in all his running, only 

 won two thousand pounds, and the manor- 

 bowl in the good city of Salisbury ! l But 



1 He won eleven king's plates, carrying twelve stone 

 in all but one ; was never beaten ; and always ridden 

 without whip or spurs. He died, 27th of February, 

 1789. The ' manor-bowl ' is still a prize, and was won 

 at the last meeting by a horse belonging to Mr. Stevens 

 the trainer, at Isley, Berkshire. 



