612 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



well-known Continental sportsman, who had often won races on the flat and over 

 a country in France and Belgium. 



The rules under which steeplechases are run have undergone a great process 

 of expansion. The original code, known as the " Melton Rules," were few in 

 number and of great simplicity. They were added to when the Grand National 

 Hunt Committee was established, and they have been amplified at intervals ever 

 since, two revisions having taken place in 1877 and 1889. From time immemorial 

 steeplechasing had been associated with hunters, and for a long time the attempt 

 was made to give hunters a chance, so that in due course we found that "popular 

 mystery," the racecourse hunter, galloping about. At last the farce was played out, 

 and after other definitions, the racecourse hunter was finally abolished altogether 

 in 1890. 



When the Grand National Hunt Committee took in hand the rules of steeple- 

 chasing, there was nothing said about fences, partly because most of the races 

 had been run over a more or less natural country, and many men who were in 

 1903 no more than middle aged can remember the time when there were as 

 many ditches (unguarded) on the taking-off side of a fence as there were on the 

 landing side. But at places like Kingsbury, Woodside, Enfield, Streatham, and 

 Ealing, it became of supreme importance that horses should be, as far as possible, 

 insured against falling. To this end fences were cut clown till they became a 

 farce ; while a ditch on the taking-off side was never seen. Steeplechasing fell 

 upon evil days until, at last, in 1882 Lord Marcus Beresford, who had ridden a 

 good deal between the flags, at a meeting of the Grand National Hunt Committee, 

 moved that a Committee be appointed to examine into and report upon the best 

 means of restoring steeplechasing. This was done, and the result was seen in the 

 regulation fences obtaining in 1903. 



As will have been gathered from the fact that the original steeplechases were 

 of the point-to-point order, a real attempt was made in them to give the hunter 

 a chance ; and this kind of race was revived in the late seventies. For some 

 time, however, the Grand National Hunt Committee took no cognizance of these 

 races ; but at last they were forced to do so ; and in the steeplechasing volume 

 of the Racing Calendar for 1886 horses running in point-to-point races were 

 excepted from the penalties attaching to those taking part in contests not under 

 rules, provided that certain conditions were observed. The need that arose for 

 further legislation is succinctly recorded in the Code in force in 1903. 



