GETTING OVER AN OLD BLIND ROAD-WAY, AND DOING IT 

 WELL — EVEN BETTING 



CHAPTER II 



ORGANISED STEEPLECHASING 



St. Albans 



FROM the previous pages it will have been seen that 

 hitherto there were no regularly organised steeple- 

 chase meetings. People made matches and entered into 

 sweepstakes on any terms they pleased, but there was no 

 sort of attempt at anything like steeplechasing as we 

 now know it, and what would be the present condition 

 of that branch of sport had it not been for Mr. Thomas 

 Coleman, trainer, roughrider, innkeeper, and father of 

 steeplechasing, it is difficult to say. There is no doubt 

 in the world that in the vicinity of St. Albans, Coleman 

 inaugurated a new steeplechase era ; but he was not, 

 as some have imagined, a mere speculating innkeeper 

 who started a speculative steeplechase just as a publican 

 gets up a shooting match at sparrows or starlings. 



17 



B 



