N splendour of exhibition 
and multitude of attendants, 
Newmarket, Epsom, Ascot, or Doncaster 
would bear no comparison with the im- 
posing spectacles of the Olympic Games ; 
and had not racing been considered in 
Greece a matter of the highest national 
importance, Sophocles would have been guilty of a 
great fault in his " Electra," when he puts into the mouth 
of the messenger who comes to recount the death of 
Orestes, a long description of the above sports. Nor 
are these the only points of difference between the 
racing of Olympia and Newmarket. At the former, 
honour alone was the reward of the winner, and no man 
lost either his character or his money. But still, great 
as must have been in those old days the passion for 
equestrian distinction, it was left for later times to 
display, to perfection, the full powers of the race-horse. 
