8 REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



against even English hacks. Mr. A. de H. Larpent, scion of a 

 well-known old home family was Honorary Secretary of the 

 Calcutta Races, backed up by Messrs. Moffatt-Mills, Hume, 

 Patton (The Squire) and others. Perhaps one of the most 

 remarkable differences between those and modern times, is the 

 difference of treatment accorded to owners. Then owners 

 were the chief donors of purses, and added to that, the charge 

 for entries was abnormally large. In 1846 we find Mr. James 

 Hume, who had taken over the reins of Calcutta, from Mr. A. de 

 H. Larpent, sending round the hat for an Arab Dealers' Plate, 

 and the dealers bled freely ; Abdool Ryman and the grand old 

 Sheik Ibrahim putting down their hundred gold mohurs each 

 and Mahomed Bin Ushur fifty, this merely as a preliminary. 

 Then look at the terms of entry " five gold mohurs each, for 

 horses named ist January, ten gold mohurs ist April, fifteen 

 gold mohurs ist July, twenty gold mohurs for each horse de- 

 clared to start. No horse to start whose owner has not sub- 

 scribed at least fifty gold mohurs to the plate ! ! ! Great Scot 

 if our ever popular " Flummery" signed his name nowadays 

 to such a programme, would he escape scathing at the 

 hands of sporting writers ? In a minor way, Sonepore and 

 Mozufferpore followed suit. The former meeting advertised 

 a forty gold mohur purse, but in addition to expensive entries 

 the Stewards added a sweepstake of 15 gold mohurs as a 

 tax on each starter, to be wolfed by the winner, nothing 

 being voted for either second or third. In fact one looks through 

 the programmes of those days, and searches in vain for any 

 real encouragement to sport ; and be it remembered that 

 there were then no blatant bookies, totalisators, or such other 

 gambling mediums, as are in vogue nowadays ; so that it 

 stands to reason men ran rather for love of sport than for 

 filthy lucre. In forty-six, the day before the first day's fixture, 

 the Sonepore course was under water, and no galloping was 

 possible; just fancy the misery borne by the lovers of racing, 



