150 THE ENGLISH TURF 



were two much-coveted prizes. Even now the programme 

 is a fair one, but the modern enclosure has caused the aver- 

 age race-goer to expect comfort, luxury, and ease wherever 

 he goes, and Bath does not offer these attractions. It is 

 more than three miles from the station to the Lansdown, 

 where the races are held, and the route lies up a terribly 

 steep hill, on which a rickety old cab filled by four stout 

 bookmakers is very likely to stop half-way up. The descent 

 is absolutely dangerous, and in such times as we are passing 

 through, when the race-goer, except in the big weeks, always 

 has a choice of two meetings, it is small wonder that Bath 

 is avoided. Then the Biennial has disappeared, and the 

 Somersetshire Stakes only retains a tithe of its former im- 

 portance. It invariably happens, too, that the fixture clashes 

 with York Spring Meeting ; and though the two places do 

 not draw upon the same training stables, the men who follow 

 the meetings prefer York and the Knavesmire, with Don- 

 caster to follow, to the Lansdown, with Salisbury to wind 

 up the week. Bath still retains a fair measure of local 

 support, and the course is a good deal better than many 

 to which much praise is given. It is an oval of nearly a 

 mile and three-quarters, and is on down land, grand old 

 turf, unless the races are held during a period of drought. 

 The meeting is handy for all the Wiltshire, Berkshire, and 

 Hampshire stables, from which the supply of horses is 

 chiefly drawn. Personally, I think a visit to Bath — where 

 there are many first-rate hotels — in the spring of the year 

 a great treat, and I should be glad to see the meeting re- 

 stored to its former importance. Perhaps the greatest 

 stumbling-block which it has to contend with is that in 

 the particular week in which the races are held, the best 

 programme of the week is that of the Doncaster Meeting, 

 immediately afterwards, York in itself is not such a for- 

 midable rival, but Doncaster Spring Meeting is an important 

 fixture, and as the two Yorkshire towns are close together 

 they draw the London racing element in far greater numbers 

 than do Bath and Salisbury. In this particular week the 

 ring is stronger in the North than it is in the South, and 

 where the ring is strongest there will be the best racing. 



