15 



from the old work], can any day witness on our Course a scene, that can- 

 not fail, from its noveltz/^ to strike the beholder for the first time, with 

 peculiar force and interest — we refer to the Backfiammon Board ap- 

 pearance, a part of our Course puts on, during the running of the heats, 

 black and while groups, dotting the Course here and there, and changing 

 coloi- with surprising regularity — chameleon-like — the black faces turn- 

 ing wliite^ and the ivhite faces looking very black, from time to time, as 

 their respective favorites fail to equal their anticipations. 



As it may reasonably be expected in a publication of this kind, that 

 something would be said of the orj^^m and history o{ racing, ■^Whoxxt 

 going as fully into the subject, as we might do, with the materials at our 

 command, we will confine ourself to a brief review, from tlie best au- 

 thorities extant. 



Horse racing is so ancient an amusement, it is puzzling to determine 

 to what point of time it is fair to go back, to fix a Starting Post. Let us 

 be content to go back about 3300 years, to the Olympic games of an- 

 cient Greece. Every schoolboy has read of them, consequently knows 

 that horse racing was a tixvorite sport in those days ; tlie running taking 

 place periodically, on a Course regularly laid out for the purpose, vary- 

 ing in length, according to the age and supposed powers of the competi- 

 tors. 



The poets Sophocles and Pindar have both written on the subject — 



■* the one has a long description of the Olympic Turf, with its exercises, 



in his play of The Electro. ; whilst the other has an ode, in which 



honorable mention is made of a distinguished winner of the Olympic 



crown ! 



The Equiria at Rome, so called from the races that were run in the 

 Campus Martius, in existence 2450 years ago, were anciently run 'in the 

 open country, and afterwards in enclosures, railed in with wood, to pre- 

 vent the spectators from crowding in too much. To attain the same 

 end, modern race courses are either railed in or roped — many of them, 

 like the Charleston Race Course, all the way round, but none of them 

 are without enclosures at the coming-in post. 



Constantine did not think it beneath his dignity to complete the fa- 

 mous Course, Altmeidan, at Constantinople, commenced by his prede- 

 cessor, Alexander Severus. 



Racing in Italy is still a common pastime at the present day. At An- 

 cona, by-the-bye, they have a singular, but very admirable method of 

 determining the winner. Across the Course, at the coming-in post, a 

 thread is stretched, saturated in a red mixture, which the first horse 



w 



