Speaking Generally 1 1 



the Doncaster St. Leger winner, Lord Bentinck alone 

 winning 16,000. The "incredible sum" of $2,500,000 

 was said to have changed hands on the result almost 

 equal to a day on a modern stock "exchange" so 

 called. 



Between 1830 and 1840 the Doncaster St. Leger stake 

 averaged, yearly, about $10,000. A few years later it 

 varied between $18,000 and $24,000. The sizes of the 

 Derby and the Oaks stakes were of corresponding dignity. 

 The honors and emoluments of these contests attracted the 

 bluest of the blue. For sixty years, or longer, they formed 

 the centre of gravitation in the English breeding and 

 sporting world, and the supreme test of speed, endurance, 

 blood and type. It is no wonder, then, that from the 

 beginning, down to 1838, the number of nominations for 

 each of these stakes frequently exceeded 75 and ran as 

 high as 131, and that the number starting frequently 

 exceeded 20 and ran as high as 30. 



A knowledge of these facts is necessary to appreciate 

 the progressive spirit of the Southern planter during the 

 period under consideration. At a time when a hundred 

 weight of cotton, a "ham of meat and a side of bacon," 

 had to be used as a medium of exchange between neigh- 

 bors, they went themselves, or sent agents, with gold, on 

 long, tedious voyages and procured the cream of English 

 aristocracy to use in building up the commercial interests 

 of the South. While the best specimens of English horse 

 flesh were contending for supremacy at Epsom and Don- 

 caster, their brothers and sisters of the full and half 

 blood, and other close kin, were fighting it out to the tune 

 of "who lasts the longest" on the various race tracks 

 between Beans Station and Memphis. 



An instance: at the same time that many of the get of 

 imp Priam were entered for the three great English 



