112 THE ENGLISH TURF 



ning-post, in by far the best position, is the enclosure known 

 as " Barnard's Stand," the charge for admission to which on 

 ordinary days is six shillings, and I have often thought 

 that if the Epsom executive could obtain this space, they 

 could, to a certain extent, remodel the present arrangements 

 and give more room to the rings, the Club Stand, and the 

 weighing-room enclosure, which latter place is ridiculously 

 small and inconvenient What vested interests there may 

 be in Barnard's Stand, or whether it would be possible to 

 close the passage between the last-named place and the 

 weighing-room enclosure (which appears to be a right of 

 way), I do not know, but two things are quite certain, viz. 

 that the enclosures are far too small, and that the meeting 

 is one of the richest in the kingdom. Moreover, Barnard's 

 Stand is much the least liberally patronised of any of the 

 Epsom enclosures : the crowd is never very large there, and 

 even on Derby day it is far thinner than in " Tattersall's " or 

 the Grand Stand enclosures. 



The Epsom Course is on down land, and if the weather 

 has been favourable it affords capital going. In times of 

 drought it becomes very dry and hard, and there is no 

 supply of water available for purposes of irrigation. At 

 the same time, no pains are spared to make the surface 

 of the track as good as possible, and were it not for the 

 fact that the crowd is allowed to wander all over it between 

 the races, it would remain good to the end of the week. 

 As it is, it becomes terribly worn and dry in fine weather, 

 or a sea of mud should there chance to be rain during the 

 meeting. The subject has already been alluded to in the 

 description of Ascot, and the remarks which I made there 

 are even more applicable to Epsom. About the course 

 itself much has been written, and many opinions have been 

 given. Perhaps more abuse has been showered on Epsom 

 than on any other meeting, but, for all that, the Derby 

 Course of one mile and a half is a great test of merit, 

 proof of which is afforded by the fact — emphasised a few 

 pages back — that the best horse nearly always wins, and 

 that as a very general rule the form is confirmed at Ascot. 

 A steep descent in a racecourse is very uncommon, and 



