1835 A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 249 



It may here conveniently be observed that neither 

 Messrs. Bowes nor John Scott (the former as owner 

 and the latter as trainer) with their tan gallop of more 

 than a mile at Langton Wold, nor the Jockey Club 

 with theirs, still finer, at Newmarket, can lay claim to 

 that useful invention which was due, it is stated on 

 excellent authority, to Mr. John Why te, the originator 

 of the short-lived Hippodrome (in 1837), Bayswater, 

 whom everybody tried to dissuade from the use of 

 tan, on the ground that it would ' entirely destroy 

 the grass.' He, however, tried it first of all over a 

 small portion of his Hippodrome, and found that it 

 not only ' formed an elastic carpet ' which saved the 

 horses' legs from jarring, but actually ' promoted 

 the growth of the grass.' So much for English pre- 

 judice, which is nearly always dead against any new 

 thing; whereas Americans try a novelty first and 

 object to it (if it fails) afterwards. 



Let us now proceed to inquire how the Jockey 

 Club, first with nothing but its organ (played by 

 Mr. James TVeatherby) and its social prestige to 

 sustain its authority, and then with proprietary 

 claims over the principal portions of Newmarket 

 Heath to give it rights which would be enforced 

 by law, entered upon that course of progressive 

 domination which has culminated in undisputed 

 autocracy ; what were the chief rules and regulations 

 which it passed for observance at Newmarket only (as 

 was expressly stated from time to time in a sort of 



