ON RACING. £81 



while many a pleasant little meeting held 

 formerly on a breezy down or heathclad 

 common has died out, because owners are 

 no longer content to run for a silver cup 

 or a tAventy-pound sweepstakes, as they were 

 when sportsmen loved sport for its own sake 

 rather than for that of gain. Well Avould 

 we like to see these old country meetings 

 revived, and others like them instituted ; for 

 though we know there were rogues and 

 ruffians then as now, yet there was more 

 spirit and fun in the thing when country 

 gentlemen ran their horses for the public 

 as well as their own amusement, and the 

 rural race-goer, if he betted at all, backed the 

 colt he had seen playing beside its dam in 

 the breeding paddocks, or which was trained 

 upon the downs above his native village. 



Por some reason or other racing seems to 

 have become less interesting in itself (we 

 exclude the spurious excitement of betting) 

 than it used to be ; and this, we think, is 



