272 EACECOUESE AND COVEET SIDE. 



Street, at Hurlingliam, in Scotland, at New- 

 market, Ascot, Sandown, Cowes, in Leicester- 

 shire, and other familiar resorts, as some 

 Englishmen are in Paris and round about it ; but 

 these are the few, and from a careful study of 

 sport and sportsmen on the French coast during 

 a race week, I can assert with perfect con- 

 fidence that the ordinary Frenchman, in spite of 

 all the introduction of various sports during the 

 last few years, knows scarcely more about racing 

 than middle-class Frenchmen — and French- 

 women especially — know of true politeness and 

 courteous behaviour. 



The race week means more than racing. 

 Though there are only three days of racing 

 proper, the meeting extends from Friday to 

 Tuesday, the grand day being Sunday ; and the 

 intermediate days are filled up with pigeon 

 shooting, polo, various gaieties of a theatrical, 

 musical, and social nature at the Casino, wild 

 gambhng with the race games, and the regatta 

 together with the usual amusements of a French 

 watering-place. So far as the slaughter of 

 hapless pigeons goes, indeed, the "sports " began 

 on Wednesday, excitement having been pre- 

 viously worked up by the erection on the Plage, 

 the green space between the road and the sea, of 

 stands, and an enclosed circle within which the 



