OTHER SEATS OF HORSE-RACING. 39 



with a purse of £20, given by the Corporation, for 

 five, six-year-olds, and aged horses ; five-year-olds 

 to carry 8st, 2lb., six-year-olds, 8st. iilb., and 

 aged, 9st. 51b,, mares to be allowed 31b. ; the 

 best of three four-mile heats. To pay five 

 shillings to the clerk of the course, and three 

 guineas of entrance." The races decided at Chester 

 continued to multiply, as time went on, till the 

 institution of the race for the Tradesman's Cup, 

 in 1824. 



It would have been interestingr to be able to 

 chronicle more exactly the rise of racing at Chester 

 and other seats of the sport; but in early days the 

 records of the sport enjoyed were, in all probability, 

 never committed to paper, at all events they do not 

 exist, so far as is known to historians of the turf, 

 in any consultative form. It would be a sight 

 worth seeing if the race for the St. George's Cup, 

 with all its surroundings of two centuries and a 

 half ago, could be reproduced on the Rood Dee 

 " some line morning in the merry month of May," 

 to be viewed alongside the struggle for Chester's 

 greatest prize of to-day. At the time when " the 

 Cup " was instituted, the sport of racing had 

 attained a high position both at Chester and some 

 other parts of England, " the races " formed a 

 meeting-place of the county people which was 

 largely taken advantage of for assemblies and other 

 social gatherings ; but that is not the case to-day, 

 when people arrive to see the races by some fore- 

 noon train, and the moment sport ceases, depart 

 as hurriedly as they came. 



