* TA TTERSALLS: 1 1 1 



even by the area-gate. When gentlemen wanted to 

 back their horses to win big purses of money for the 

 Derby, or any other event, it was convenient to find at 

 their elbow a bookmaker ready to accommodate them ; 

 and many a heavy commission has been successfully 

 worked at Tattersall's. Thirty years ago a writer gave 

 indications of the immense sums of money which used 

 to change hands at that famed resort, often enough to 

 the extent of £100,000 on the settling-day after a 

 great race : 



' What a theme for the moralist and historian does 

 that simple word "Tattersall's" open up! How 

 fortunes have been won and lost in " the room," and 

 how emperors, kings, princes, and the most exalted of 

 the aristocracy of all nations, have rubbed elbows with 

 dealers, " legs," " copers," and the lower order of the 

 " ossitocracy " in general in the yard, would prove an 

 interesting story.' 



But apart altogether from the fame of the subscrip- 

 tion-rooms which have ftn* such a long period been 

 attached to the establishment, Tattersall's is well 

 worthy of having its history written. It is surprising 

 that a volume of ' Memories ' has not long since been 

 devoted to its founder, and an account of the business 

 (in horse-dealing) so long carried on, which is un- 

 doubtedly the most important of its kind. Sketches 

 of the first Mr. Tattersall— ' Old Tatt,' as he was 

 fondly called by his familiar friends— and his cele- 

 brated horse Highflyer liave been written, but the 

 sporting public would undoubtedly read with relish 

 an authentic history of the establishment, from the 

 pen, say, of the present head of the house, or from 



