137 



men, and many of them also indulge in betting, and at times to large 

 amounts. 



Outside the enclosures is a contrast just as great. Scarcely one small 

 farmer or labourer is to be seen, and this refers to big steeplechase 

 meetings (bar the two I am going to name) as well as to the small 

 provincials. Many attribute this to the decrease in the peasant popula- 

 tion, but though that may have something to do with it, the true cause 

 is discoverable elsewhere, as I shall endeavour to explain. Anyway it 

 gets rid of the tents to a great degree ; and, as far as they are concerned, 

 a very good job. 



Punchestown and Fairy House attract a very fair contingent of the 

 farming class, but let me inform my readers these are the only steeple- 

 chase meetings in Ireland lohere the courses are natural^ and where they 

 are practically the same as they were in the days of Brunette, Blueskin, 

 and New Broom. 



Excepting them, at nearly all our steeplechase meetings are flat and 

 hurdle races. Stakes are given of from £100 to £500, and Leopards- 

 town has added one of £1,000 ; but the fields of horses for them are not 

 nearly as large as we had for the old £50 and £60 plates, nor are they of 

 as good a class. Men run horses now for gain and not for glory. They 

 don't patronise the Turf to support it with their incomes, but only to make 

 incomes out of it. A fifty sovereign stake would not now bring forty 

 horses from long distances to compete in a friendly scurry over five 

 miles of a natural sporting country. 



N"ow we have far-and-away more "gentlemen" than professional 

 jockeys, and consequently more races confined to gentlemen riders, 

 while the amateur can ride in any race — handicap or other — without 

 let or hindrance. This brings about the fact that our present gentlemen 

 jocks are as good as any, and better than most, professionals, while a 

 great many of the best are officers in the army. Moreover, there are five 

 times as many race meetings in Ireland now as there were before the 

 seventies. 



Having stated both sides of the question as regards past and present 

 steeplechasing as fairly and correctly as I can, let me, for information 

 sake, ask the question. Is steeplechasing in Ireland on a better or worse 

 footing than it was, say, thirty years ago ? As I cannot argue out the 

 subject with my readers, I must have recourse to a sort of desultory 

 dialogue, mixed up with suggestive questions and my own opinion. 

 I shall however deal with the subject straight, and as fairly as I can. 



Of course, it goes without saying that the not only desirable, but 

 absolutely requisite improvements in stand-house and course-keeping 

 arrangements, are as much an advance upon the old, as are railway upon 

 past coaching arrangements. To these improvements, too, let us not 

 forget w^e owe the presence of the ladies at our race meetings. But that 

 is not the question, however close it might lie to it. We have to consider 

 steeplechasing pure and simple. 



A great deal has been written within the last few years upon the 



