COURSES. 89 



uot made known by ordinary publication. The curi- 

 ous thing about it, however, is that upon these 

 courses racing goes on year by year, and although 

 now and again some marvellously contradictory run- 

 ning is seen, people never appear to inquire the ex- 

 tent to which the conformation of the ground may 

 have contributed to it. 



Why people should ostensibly know so much 

 about horses, and know little, or it may be nothing, 

 about the character of the ground upon which they 

 gallop in a race, is most surprising; yet, for all that, 

 I should think the time cannot be so far distant now 

 when this branch of the ethics of racing will be 

 thought to merit a little of the attention it certainly 

 deserves. 



It was only the other day I met a well-known 

 clerk of the course — a man recognized everywhere 

 as a thoroughly practical and painstaking offtcial — 

 of whom I inquired whether a survey had been 

 made of any course under his management, and it 

 certainly did not surprise me when he said it had 

 not. The measurements in point of distance had 

 been arrived at, he said, ''pretty accurately, al- 

 though the chain had not been run over them." 

 "Our races," he went on to say, "are always stated 

 to be 'aibout' the distance mentioned in the condi- 

 tions, and that is near enough for me, and I am 

 satisfied with it." 



