I70 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



hands ; 4th, a firm seat ; 5th, to be a good judge of 

 pace ; and 6th, and above all, a fixed determination 

 to persevere to the end, despite of accident or other 

 casualties. Many a race have I seen won when 

 apparently all chance appeared gone ; the ultimate 

 victor had had a bad fall, but he had resolutely re- 

 mounted, persevered, had seen one opponent after 

 another come to grief like himself, but, left literally, 

 possessor of the field, he cantered in almost alone. 

 These remarks are chiefly applicable to the old 

 style of steeple-chase over a natural course, and have 

 no reference to the ' make-believe ' cross-country 

 races now seen at the recognised gate-money meet- 

 ings, over artificially made fences which characterise 

 them. Not but what excellent sport, with clever 

 horsemanship, is to be seen at such gatherings. 

 But they lack the continual variation and unexpected 

 changes of success that attended the old style, such as 

 is yet preserved at the Liverpool and the Aylesbury 

 meetings, which are almost the only two natural 

 public courses left. 



Amongst the earliest of these contests I find 

 there had been a well-managed race about the year 

 1833-34 at St. Albans, when a strong field of noted 

 horses met, and the race fell to ' Moonraker ' ; and 

 in 1836 the Aylesbury steeple-chases commenced. 



A great contrast to modern times for these early 

 sporting events was the amount of the stakes for 

 which they ran ; these seldom exceeded 50/., with 

 perhaps a sweepstakes of 20 sovs. P.P. — no forfeits, 

 the second horse savino- his stake. After these 



o 



