294 ON STEEPLE-CHASING. 



to be the other Avay about, and the jumping 

 game to have proved more attractive to 

 the public than the more monotonous pro- 

 ceedings of the race-course. But such is 

 not the case, almost any flat-race meeting 

 being more largely attended than a cross- 

 country fixture ; always excepting the 

 Liverpool Grand National, which draws 

 every year a crowd of North-countrymen 

 and Midlanders as huge as that which 

 assembles on the Town Moor to cheer home 

 the winner of the great St. Leger. Possibly 

 steeple-chasing would have acquired a greater 

 hold on popular interest had its earlier 

 conditions been maintained ; and particularly 

 had the old-fashioned natural course with 

 its greater variety of jumps been continued. 

 But this has almost entirely disappeared, 

 and one course is almost a facsimile of 

 another, the only important diiference being 

 in the size and height of the artificial 

 fences. Grreat, I remember, was my sur- 



