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his fellows, is now unheard of. Directly the last race is over away 

 home everyone hurries. 



Betting was not carried on to any extent on Irish courses five-and 

 thirty years ago — in fact, I can remember only one bookmaker at our 

 Southern meetings. He was named Mullins, and was often assisted by 

 his wife ; and even they had not sufficient betting to occupy all their 

 time, so they worked a roulette-table as well. 



Although betting was not much in vogue, except among the gentry, 

 roulette and hazard were immensely popular. These games were played 

 openly in the enclosure and also at the hotels every night as long as 

 the meeting lasted. Very large sums were lost and won, but only 

 by the upper classes of society. The keepers of the "hells," as the 

 gaming-places were very appropriately called, found their vocation so 

 lucrative that they paid high fees to the race executive and hotel 

 proprietors for the privilege of playing. £100 was a common sum at a 

 small country meeting, while £500 was for many a year the annual 

 stipend paid by " Old Bones " to the Punchestown fund. 



Another fashionable game, was that called *' handicapping." A rum 

 old game it was. What a mart it created for the exchange of every 

 conceivable commodity a man might, or might 7iot, be possessed of ! 

 A fellow's horse or his house, his watch or his wardrobe might be " chal- 

 lenged," but, by the unique principle of the game he might, if he had 

 sufficient acumen, attain double the value of the article by judicious 

 appreciation of " the award," and at the same time retain his property 

 in the end ! What various degrees of satisfaction were felt by men ia 

 the morning consequent upon the result of their " opening" or " sporting," 

 *' holding " or " not holding," the night before ! Truly, this intellectual 

 game conduced eminently towards sharpening up the wits of a youngster 

 and improving his powers of rapid mental calculation. I could not 

 refrain from some allusion to this extraordinary game of the bygone era, 

 but I must return to my subject. 



The people who attended these old-fashioned race-meetings were of a 

 class quite different from that of the present day. The stand-houses and 

 enclosures were all very small, and the sum paid for admission never 

 exceeded 5s. The accommodation, however, was quite sufficient, as no 

 one went to the stand-houses except the local gentry and those who 

 came from a distance. Ladies were never seen inside them. The few 

 who did attend always drove in their carriages, from which they never 

 stirred. On the other hand country people attended in their thousands. 

 The run-home was lined with a solid mass of spectators, while every 

 fence and vantage ground was thronged with frieze-coated farmers, 

 their sons, and labourers. Within a ten-mile radius of the course not 

 one of them could be found at home, except those too ill or too old. 

 Wherever was a fence more formidable than the others there would 

 congregate the crowd in greatest numbers. Every man evinced the 

 keenest interest in the sport, which was intensified when a neighbour's 

 horse ran, and if he won the excitement culminated in frenzy. 



