OR, Thb Turn Ottt, 



147 



HORSE SHOWS, AND MAT-DAT 

 CELEBRATIONS. 



'Twas morn — a most auspicious one; 

 From the golden East, the golden sun 

 Came forth his golden race to run ; 



Through clouds of most splendid tinges, 

 Clouds that lately slept in shade, 

 But now seem'd made of gold brocade, 



With magnificent golden fringes : 

 In short 'twas the year's most golden day, 

 By mortals called the " First of Mat." 



HE defenders of horse racing tell us that 

 the so-called sport was instituted with a 

 view to improve the breed of horses. 

 Granting this to be the case, it could 

 only improve them in one direction — 

 that of swiftness. How far the institu- 

 tion has succc*eded would be rather 

 difficult to say. 



But whatever may have been the ne- 

 cessitj^ for fleet horses in olden days, 

 when the only messengers were the 

 ** couriers" and the "carrier pigeons/' the necessity for 

 developing swiftness at the expense of other qualities of 

 the horse now no longer exists ; for the electric telegraph 

 far outstrips the swiftest pigeon, and the express train 

 can distance completely the fleetest steed. 



Seeing, then, that speed merely is no longer a desider- 

 atum in the horse, and seeing also the evils arising from and 

 associated with the " turf," would it not be better to sub- 

 stitute some more rational mode of encouraging the improve- 

 ment in the breed of horses in their training and management? 

 With a view to carrying out this idea, the Author introduced 

 an exhibition of draught-horses on May-day fifteen years 



