AND OTHEK SKETCHES 129 



FORTY AND FIFTY YEAES AGO. 



Every now and then I hear some of the young chaps 

 grow rapturous about the wonderful progress the run- 

 ning turf has made in Ontario, and cite the Ontario 

 Jockey Club meetings as proof of it. Now I quite agree 

 with them so far as the big Toronto meeting is concerned. 

 It is an improvement over any of the old-time meetings. 



Nearly forty years ago the Whitby Club used to give 

 some rattling good meetings, and purses of $400 were no 

 uncommon prize. Now grass grows over its track and 

 the footfall of the thoroughbred hasn't been heard there 

 for years. Hamilton in those days used to hang up thou- 

 sands of dollars, and prominent men used to gather 

 from all over the province ; contests as keenly contested 

 as any run nowadays were then witnessed, but for a long 

 time the glory departed from there also, and it is only 

 within a few years that the Hamilton Jockey Club has 

 again popularized the silks and satins of the turf in the 

 Ambitious City. 



London was another popular centre, and on the old 

 Newmarket track there was many a gallant contest in ye 

 olden days, and good men and true gathered from all 

 over to take the odds or lay them as their fancy decided. 

 And what a jolly crew used to report the night before the 

 opening day of the meeting at the Tecumseth House, the 

 headquarters of the tribe. Business men, professional 

 men and gentlemen of leisure would be there, all bound 

 for the races and all bound for a good time, but all in cor- 

 rect form as became gentlemen who had a proper respect 

 for themselves. Then again, down in the old Limestone 

 City, on the old Cataraqui track, there were many good 

 races and province-breds who could hold their own with 

 the best of the present day, struggled through two-mile 

 heats, and those terrible killers, mile heats, three in five. 



