Supporters of the Turf. 8i 



thieves and the oaths of Lancasliire miners, are compatible with a high position as a bool-:- 

 malcer, if prepared to bet on the largest scale against everything, and pay on the fixed settling- 

 day without quibbling evasions. The bookmaker on a great scale, attended by his secretaries 

 (he is often perfectly illiterate), has more correspondence, receives and despatches more telegrams, 

 exercises a great deal more influence, than an ordinary country banker. 



Bookmakers find their customers in the persons already alluded to, familiarly known 

 as "backers of horses" — a numerous tribe, who either "from information they have received," 

 or from the love of gambling, or for an occasional fancy, desire to wager on a particular horse. 



In every race of importance each horse of any reputation has a price quoted against 

 its name in the morning and evening papers. As a rule odds are laid against any one horse 

 winning, and as only one horse can win, the bookmaker makes his profit by laying against 

 every horse in a race if he can find backers — an essential point. The great object of the 

 bookmaker's trade is to find out horses that cannot possibly win — " dead 'uns " is the technical 

 term — and, by laying against them, so far make sure of a profit. The successful bookmaker 

 may and often does, know nothing about the proper shape of a racehorse ; but he is well 

 acquainted with its performances, and spares no pains or expense to learn the state of health 

 of each favourite by means of spies, called, in racing phrase, "touts." The object of the owner 

 of racehorses who makes a book, is to conceal all about his own horses and know all about 

 his competitors'. In a trial that took place some years ago, it came out that a nobleman 

 with a stud of racehorses employed " touts " to report the progress of rival stables. 



The ring is fed by a constantly-recruited crowd of persons, who back a horse for all 

 manner of reasons: because they bred him; because a friend owns him; because — this is 

 very common — they have dreamed a dream ; because he was bred in their own parish or 

 county ; because they have read a favourable account of him in one of the sporting papers 

 (whose business it is to follow the birth, report the education, training performances, and 

 health of every race-horse until his or her final breakdown or retirement from the turf) ; 

 because — this is the most dangerous of all reasons — they have been privately and con- 

 fidentially informed of the results of a private trial, and that consequently a certain 

 animal must win. They have been what is called " put up " or " put on " to " a good thing." 

 In the crowds that assemble outside Tattersall's Subscription Rooms before any great betting 

 race, amongst the persons not admitted to that paradise there are always a large per- 

 centage of persons who have been reduced to beggary by putting their trust in "good things" 

 and " backing horses," or attempting to make a book on imperfect resources. 



It must be admitted, however, that the ring attracts a good many people of means and 

 leisure, who bet a little and gossip a good deal, by way of passing time, and obtaining the 

 relaxation of society — such as it is. Mrs. Guy Flouncey, whose rise, progress, and final 

 triumph as a leader of fashionable society, are chronicled in " Coningsby " and " Tancred," 

 made her husband go on the turf " for the sake of making acquaintances which she knew how 

 to improve." 



Harriet Lady Ashburton, no novelist's creation, but one of the cleverest and most charm- 

 ing women of her generation, once said, according to Lord Houghton, " If I were to begin 

 life again, I would go on the turf to get friends. They seem to me the only people who 

 really hold close together. I don't know why ; it may be that each knows something that 

 might hang the other, but the effect is delightful and most peculiar."* 



• Lord Houghton's " Monograplis." 



