MODERN ENCLOSED COURSES 203 



the Bibury Club Meeting. Their work is generally cut out 

 for them at the beginning of the season, and they have 

 no time to turn their attention to smaller Midland meetings, 

 held either when something more important is on or at the 

 beginning or end of the week. This applies most particularly 

 to those places which have not clear dates, which must there- 

 fore depend greatly upon local resources of attendance and 

 ring, and also upon horses trained in " little " stables (which 

 run at the country meetings), upon the second rank of jockeys, 

 and altogether upon the lower section of the racing world. 

 We do not use the word "lower" in any uncomplimentary 

 sense, but merely as indicating that everything cannot be 

 of the highest standard. Now Birmingham has its stands 

 on raised ground ; it has a hill — an admirable coign of 

 vantage — from which the "bob a nob" gentry can view 

 the racing ; it has a two-mile course, with a straight run-in 

 of six furlongs ; it has a straight course of ten furlongs, 

 and it is reached in twenty-five minutes by cab from the 

 heart of the town ; it lies midway between two stations 

 of the Midland Railway, and horses can be unboxed a 

 few hundred yards from the stables. Were it situated close 

 to London it would do big things, but being where it is, 

 it is likely to remain the scene of fair second-class racing 

 and nothing more. With better dates doubtless a better 

 show could be made, and one w^ould like to see the place 

 encouraged with a mid-week, unopposed fixture. 



Dunstall Park is an assured success, and has been so 

 for many years past. The Dunstall executive have never 

 flown at high game, but have pursued the even tenor of 

 their way with second-rate flat-race meetings in the summer 

 and plenty of jumping fixtures in the winter. The jumping 

 meetings at this enclosure are nearly always productive of 

 wonderful fields and capital sport, and the place has become 

 quite a nursery of chasers, and occupies much the same 

 place with regard to Midland cross-country sport that 

 Plumpton does in the South of England. From its earliest 

 days Dunstall Park was popular with the native population, 

 and really the men of Wolverhampton seem to be just as 

 keen on racinsr as the inhabitants of Leicester are the 



