8 EFFECT PRODUC^ED BY THE BETTING FRATERNITY. 



checked or stopped the better. If a race-course, 

 instead of being a healthful and exhilarating spot, 

 where we expect to see an assemblage of the first 

 sporting men in the world, their families, their friends, 

 and their tenants, come to enjoy a truly English 

 and noble s])ort, is to be converted into an extended 

 rouge et noir table, and black and red to win, not 

 because either is on the best horse, but because it 

 suits the books of a set of miscreants, it is quite time 

 to stop the thing at once, and begin it de novo. 



We have, however, still a few (and God knows a 

 very few) men on the Turf whose character and 

 position in life place them beyond suspicion ; but 

 among the Nobility of the United Kingdom — which 

 amounts, I should say, to about seven hundred, 

 independently of Lords by courtesy, — we find now 

 scarcely more than twenty patronising the Turf by 

 keeping race-horses — a pretty sure criterion of its 

 respectability under the present system ! Formerly, 

 Avhen racing was carried on as racing should be, if a 

 man won, he walked up to his horse, received the 

 congratulations of his friends, and felt a very justi- 

 fiable pride in his horse's triumph ; he knew he had 

 won fairly, and had no fear of being suspected of 

 ha-\dng ever done otherwise. But now, nothing appears 

 to be done openly : the owner of a horse retires among 

 the crowd, and appears, and really is, afraid of being 

 pointed out as connected with the Turf. A man, 

 indeed, must rank very high in public estimation to 

 keep his character unscathed. I have mentioned how 

 few of our Nobility now keep race-horses : what a 

 host of those, and men of family and fortune, could T 

 name who have given it up ! AVhat does this prove ? 

 Not that such men are not as well disposed to 



