ASCOT AND GOODWOOD 83 



the better, being both wider and firmer than the other. At 

 the foot of either hill chain-horses are requisitioned by a 

 majority of the drivers, and all sorts of prices are paid, the 

 tariff ranging from eighteenpence for a bigger sort of pony 

 to five shillings for a powerful cart-horse. At one time the 

 supplying of these chain-horses seemed to be a prerogative 

 of the gipsies, but of late years the farmers must have 

 been securing a share of the harvest, as many good-looking 

 cart-horses are now to be seen in charge of smock-frocked 

 farm servants. Some of the most active of the men can 

 earn five-and-twenty to thirty shillings on the Cup day with 

 one horse, and though any of them will tell you that the 

 game is not so good as it was, I can see no diminution 

 in the long strings of vehicles, and most certainly the prices 

 are higher than they used to be when I paid my first visit to 

 Goodwood the year when Paganini won the Stakes. 



The Goodwood Grand Stand is of the old-fashioned sort, 

 being a large oblong house of considerable height, with 

 balconies in front, and a roof from which a capital view 

 of the racing can be obtained. It is unfortunately placed 

 parallel with the course, and this makes it difficult for 

 everyone to see the horses when they are running in the 

 straight, but a splendid view is obtained from the grass 

 slope which lies between the lawn and one end of the stand, 

 and this is a favourite coign of vantage, especially for races 

 on the T.Y.C. 



The longest course marked out, though it has not been 

 used for many years, is the Queen's Plate Course of over three 

 miles and a half, the starting-post being on Charlton Downs, 

 about a mile to the north-west of the stands, and quite close 

 to the village of Charlton. From Charlton Downs the 

 horses used to come inwards to the stands, and then run 

 the present Cup Course. The starting-post of the last- 

 named is just outside the paddock gate, and for the first 

 half-mile the horses go down the course, past the stands 

 and lawn. They then turn out to the west and go round 

 the loop the " Clump," it used to be called coming back 

 into the straight course more than five furlongs from home. 

 Every inch of the races run on this course can be seen from 



