-92 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



the work. It may be mentioned here that when 

 on a particular occasion a Queen's Plate, usually- 

 run for at the popular Scottish Musselburgh 

 meeting, was disallowed by Parliament, at the 

 instigation of a Radical member of the House 

 of Commons, the clerk of the course, Mr. James 

 Turner, along with some friends, conceived the 

 idea of replacing the disallowed trophy by a 

 "People's Plate" of the same value, ^^loo; a 

 subscription was suggested, and the requisite sum 

 of money was obtained in the course of a day 

 or two, mostly in pence. 



In a work published forty years ago, which 

 probably few readers of these pages have had 

 an opportunity of perusing — "Turf Characters" is 

 its title — the following summary is given of the 

 higher duties of a clerk of the course : 



" The clerk of the course has many obligations 

 to fulfil, the due execution of which requires 

 almost incessant attention throuq-hout the whole 

 period of the year, apart from the race-week 

 itself. For the efficient performance of those 

 obligations, he must bring into full exercise not 

 only appropriate capabilities in his own part, 

 but their judicious application with regard to 

 others. He is an important connecting link ; 

 and upon himself depends, in a considerable 

 degree, the success and popularity of the meetings 

 with which he is immediately connected, as well 

 as the maintenance of his own reputation. He 

 should not only be well acquainted with the laws 

 of racing, but with all the matters and pro- 

 positions — with, in short, the prevailing state of 

 the turf ; and, although it may not be needful 

 that he should be, as it were, a walking calendar 



