338 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



a plethora of sport. More horses are now being 

 bred for racing purposes than were ever bred 

 before ; our public stables are everywhere full 

 of high-mettled steeds. Many farmers find a 

 business in supplying hay and corn for the stables 

 of Newmarket ; trainers' bills become yearly 

 more and more onerous ; but for all that, constant 

 accessions to those who carry on the sport of 

 kings are being recorded. The value of the 

 money stakes and trophies of the pastime, which 

 are now being run for, goes on increasing ; twenty 

 years ago, a matter of £100 was thought to 

 be a stake worth winning, now ^2,000 may be 

 added to a handicap without exciting any sense 

 of wonder. Who, then, dare say, in the face of 

 such facts, that the decadence of the " national 

 pastime " has begun ? Clerks of courses, during 

 the last ten years, have experienced a flourishing 

 time, the public attend on our racecourses in 

 increasing numbers, every newspaper of im- 

 portance devotes a large portion of its space to 

 the news of the turf, whilst three daily papers 

 cater specially for the sporting public, and it is 

 no exaggeration to say that the wires of the 

 telegraphic system are largely employed in dis- 

 tributing news of all kinds respecting the horse- 

 racing of the period. The messages incident to 

 the conduct of " sport " at Epsom and Ascot, 

 as also at Goodwood and Doncaster, are mar- 

 vellously numerous. To conclude, it has to be 

 said of "the sport of kings" that, so long as it 

 is surrounded by that army of gamblers, which 

 now so fatly flourishes on all our racecourses, it 

 will continue to be what it has long since be- 

 come, a monstrous game of speculation. 



