46 The Post and the Paddock. 



the iron bars of the gate. Although the numbers 

 fluctuate considerably, the Room has about as many- 

 subscribers as it can hold : a great increase on the 

 number who adjourned there in Attila's year, from 

 their small trysting-place lower down the lane. Can- 

 didates are elected by the committee of the Room ; 

 they must find a nominator and a seconder, and the 

 names must be up for at least a month. Above the 

 fireplace at the end of the room is a painting of 

 Eclipse, from the easel of the grandfather of the 

 present Mr. Garrard (whose oxydized silver race-cups 

 are not favourably regarded by country race-goers, 

 from the belief that " they must be old tins''), re- 

 presenting the immortal chestnut when he ruminated 

 near Epsom in his proud stud-days. A brood-mare 

 and Young Eclipse are also there, with two or three 

 of the series of great winners ; and a couple of en- 

 gravings of Lord George Bentinck, and race-lists and 

 notices fastened up near the fireplace, complete the 

 tout ensemble of still life within. The left side- 

 windows open out on to the terrace green, where the 

 Ring, weather permitting, stand or saunter about on 

 field days ; and masters of hounds, &c., earlier in the 

 morning, try the paces of a hack they may have been 

 eyeing in some of the 120 stalls in the adjacent yard ; 

 but on off days it is more associated in our minds 

 with a walnut-tree, an Alderney cow, and a pail. 

 Such are the leading features of the great betting 

 mart, whose quotations are to racing men what those 

 of Mark Lane are to the farmer, Lloyd's to the 

 insurer, the Stock Exchange to the broker, or Green- 

 wich Time to the horologist. 



The whole system of betting has undergone a 

 complete change in the last sixty years. Betting 

 between one and the field was the fashion which 

 Turf speculation assumed in the days of powder and 

 periwigs, and Ogden (the only betting man who was 

 ever admitted to the Club at Newmarket), Davis, 



