32 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



occasional good thing by means of a tip, which 

 they may receive from some acquaintance or 

 friend, or they put faith, perhaps, in the two 

 horse or other wires of some brazen charlatan of 

 the tipster tribe, of whom for the time they 

 become victims. 



The Lincolnshire Handicap is the principal 

 betting race of the springtime ; many horses are 

 usually selected by bettors to win that event, and 

 one or two of the number will be heavily backed 

 by men, who, in the end, may see all their 

 cherished mind's eye visions vanish into thin air, 

 as some quite unthought of outsider romps home 

 an easy winner. The meeting held at Lincoln 

 occupies three days, and before It concludes, some 

 of the green hands, who have come on the racing 

 scene as ddbiitants, determined to give the ring a 

 fright by backing many winners, will have made 

 the old, old discovery over again that *' all is not 

 gold that glitters." New-made owners of horses, 

 too, will have found out before the expiry of the 

 three days, that men quite as clever as themselves 

 are ready to fight every inch of the ground. 

 " Keep thy head cool, lad," said, on one occasion, 

 an old turfite to an Irate young owner, who felt 

 annoyed, or rather aggrieved, at his horse being 

 placed second in a race which he fancied It had 

 won, " you wall get other chances for your horse ; 

 the season is but young, hide your feelings, you 

 won't do much good at racing if you wear your 

 heart on your sleeve." 



To-day the railways convey the masses in 

 large numbers to the different seats of sport. 

 Thousands are now seen at Lincoln for the 

 hundreds of the olden time ; but in olden times 



