158 HORSE-RACING IN ENGLAND 



to say, however, notwithstanding the less active 

 encouragement of royalty, the turf and its ruling 

 body, the Jockey Club, have reached, during the 

 reign of Queen Victoria, an astounding height, if 

 not of durable prosperity, at any rate of temporary 

 and apparent success, though the spirit of sport 

 may have departed from it noticeably, and the 

 virtue, if there were ever any in it, may have 

 crone out of it. 



The Jockey Club may be said positively to 

 wallow at present in royalty and imperialty, to 

 say nothing of representatives of America, France, 

 and Australia ; and never before could the turf 

 boast so many race - horses, owners, breeders, 

 trainers, jockeys, * bookies,' welshers, ticket- 

 snatchers, and ' talent,' which is the cumulative 

 term bestowed with a more or less pleasing irony 

 upon the ' backers ' who, for the most part, fall 

 as certain victims to ' the ring ' as the adven- 

 turous punters at Monte Carlo to ' the old gentle- 

 man ' (if there be but one) at the head of that 

 ' infernal ' establishment. This growth of the turf 

 is due, no doubt, mainly to railways and the con- 

 sequent facility of locomotion. 



Durinor the reicrn of Oueen Victoria, the turf 

 must be allowed in one sense to have had rest 



