236 HORSE-PtACING IN FRANCE 



about reciprocity matters little. The controversy had 

 shown the English people that horse-racing was no 

 longer regarded by English lords as a ' sport of kings,' 

 to be carried on in the spirit of the ' grand seigneur,' 

 as it was carried on in former days by Lord Fitzwilliam, 

 Lord Egremont, and Lord Derby upon the English Turf, 

 and by the Duke d'Orleans and Prince Marc de Beauvau 

 on the French ; it was henceforth to be included, in 

 Lord Falmouth's own words, among ' matters of hard 

 business.' 



So be it. But if that is the case it can be proved 

 by actual arithmetic that horse-racing and combined 

 racehorse-breeding cannot possibly be a paying ' in- 

 dustry ; ' they are ' matters of hard business,' out of 

 which a Lord Falmouth, a Chaplin, a Blenkiron, an 

 FAnson, or another or two may make good round 

 sums (say, 200,000/. in twenty or twenty-five years) ; 

 but the great bulk of owners (who are, of course, the 

 paymasters of the breeders) — say, ninety-nine out of a 

 hundred — must lose money, for the horses they breed 

 and own and keep and run must lose most of their 

 races. Racehorse-breeding, disconnected from owning 

 (the former having been tlie branch preferred by the 

 successful Mr. Tattersall, owner of Highflyer), may, no 

 doul)t, be very profitable indeed so long as there are 

 * gentlemen sportsmen ' who do not agree with Lord 

 Falmouth, but are prepared to pay for their ' hobby ' 

 (a queer name for a thoroughbred race horse). 



One other affair there was (connected with horse- 

 racing in France) which made the year 1876 very 

 memorable, and which affords a good illustration of the 

 way in which ' wheel within wheel ' characterises the 

 machinery of the world ; so that the case known as the 

 ' Great Turf Fraud ' led to another known as the ' Great 



