20 EXPENCES OF KACE-HOKSES DEFINABLE. 



weight to bring them to that of the others. I 

 started, and again shape and make did the thing. 

 They then wanted to add to my weight ; but, know- 

 ing what weight does, I backed out as some others 

 would have been wise had they done when they 

 backed Hyllus, forgetting, with the weight put on 

 him, the length he had to go.* Our bottle-racing 

 was soon given up ; not so the gambling. Of these 

 two fine young men, one terminated his existence 

 after losing to an enormous amount in the Palais 

 Eoyal ; the other lost the whole of his fortune, went 

 abroad, and died of fever. 



These and many more instances that have come 

 under my notice make me shudder when I see a 

 young man betting high, and betting with men who 

 are sure in the long run to strip him of every feather. 

 The same feeling makes me execrate the very name 

 of those who will not let us enjoy a noble sport 

 without by every means in their power rendering it 

 subservient to their own designs and nefarious pur- 

 poses. As to the expense of racing, it is very easily 

 defined. That of keeping a horse in a public train- 

 ing stable, every man who has race-horses in them 

 knows : they will be pretty much the same one year 

 as another : the expense of the entrances for dif- 

 ferent stakes are also known ; so no man can at all 

 events be ruined suddenly by keeping race-horses if 

 he does not bet. If he is foolish enough to incur an 

 expense of 1000/. a-year, when he cannot afford to 

 pay 200/., he does it with his eyes open. Probably 

 his other expenses are about in the same ratio : still, 



* At Wolverhampton races, for the Holyoak Stakes, Hyllus 

 carried 9 st. 6 lb., twice round and a distance, thereby giving 

 Retriever, the winner, 23 lb., both 6 yrs. 



