58 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



cessful race meetings of the period are, in a 

 certain sense, "gate-money meetings — Epsom, 

 Ascot, Doncaster, York, Goodwood, and Liver- 

 pool, as well as some others," The charges 

 made for the accommodation of the patrons 

 of these meetings are so high that they 

 produce a large profit. The promoters of the 

 sport can therefore well afford to allow all who 

 cannot afford three or four guineas for the privi- 

 leges of their stands and paddocks to see what 

 they can of the sport for nothing, and thousands 

 upon thousands avail themselves of the chances 

 offered. To say that many hundred thousand 

 persons obtain a gratuitous view of the Derby, 

 Oaks, and St. Leger, is only to tell the truth. 



As an argument, say some of the writers on 

 this subject, what more would you have than 

 the crowds which patronise the meetings of Man- 

 chester and Derby ? They are four or five times 

 larger than the crowds that assemble at New- 

 market even to witness the Cesarewitch or 

 Cambridgeshire. That is so, doubtless ; but in 

 reply it may be asked, what of the contributing 

 area of population as between the two places ? 

 Newmarket has only a few thousand residents, 

 but the Manchester racecourse, with its yearly 

 half-dozen meetings, draws the spectators of 

 racing from an immediate population of more 

 than a million persons. 



It is difficult to say how a race meeting should 

 be constituted ; it is a matter in which there is 

 room for argument, and on which much may be said 

 on both sides of the question ; and as nothing suc- 

 ceeds like success, why should there not be gate- 

 money meetings, if the people are willing to 



