148 



the time in a letter of mine comparing present and past steeplechasing^. 

 It dealt only with the fourteen horses which won that race carrying 

 list, and over up to 1881, compared with that year's winner, Woodbrook, 

 carrying list. 3lbs. 



I reproduced the table in Land and Water in the spring of 1892, 

 and it showed plainly that Woodbrook's was the worst performance 

 of the lot. Some of the others would have won almost before he had 

 got to the racecourse the second time ; while Bourlon in 1854, carrying 

 9ibs. more and doing the course in Imin. 51sec. shorter time, would have 

 galloped out of his sight altogether. Again, Woodbrook, ridden out 

 to the last pound, beat a field of only thirteen horses, the smallest,, 

 except to, up two 1881, the average being twenty-one. No doubt he 

 won in a storm of wind and rain, but it is highly probable that some 

 of the others won the race in weather quite as bad. In Woodbrook's- 

 year the fences were, I think, trimmed lower than usual. 



I shall now enter further into this interesting question of the relative- 

 pace of our steeplechasers past and present. For that purpose I shall 

 deal with the Liverpool Grand National up to 1890, from the time it 

 became a handicap, nearly half a century back, and to show that the 

 course has been practically always the same I shall first describe it. 



The race was first run in 1839, and the line of the course was never 

 altered until about '89, when the run-home was changed from the 

 five-furlong post, but the distance, four miles and a half, was never 

 altered. A few years before, some of the original fences were cleared 

 away and artificial ones, quite as stiff", put in better places. It is the habit 

 with some people to state that the fences at Aintree were in old times 

 much stifFer than they now are. They could not have been, for if they 

 were they would have been simply unjumpable. A stream intersected 

 the course and formed Becher's and Valentine's Brooks, but although 

 that is no longer in existence, and the brooks are dry, these fences are 

 as formidable as ever. The dreadful stone wall opposite the St?.nd was 

 removed a great many years ago, and the water jump substituted. 



In selecting the Grand National for my data I consider I am dealing 

 with the best cross-country horses of their respective times. 



avekage weight and time of the winners of the liverpool 

 Grand National from 1843 to 1889 (inclusive), taken in 

 DECADES, from the detailed record given in " The Sporting 

 Chronicle Annual " for 1892 :— 



