Bavarian Sporting 



6005 



about two miles in circuit, these horses, not always in the first racing 

 condition, have had galloping enough long before their six-mile run 

 is concluded. The course is marked out by about a dozen tall white 

 posts, bearing flags, the everlasting sky-blue and white, which meet 

 you at every turn in Bavaria; while ropes on one side, and men on 

 the other, keep the open space tolerably clear. Of course nothing 

 could be done till the king came, and patiently indeed did the spec- 

 tators wait, though unusually excited too did these phlegmatic Germans 

 become as to the result of their one race, and as to whom should be 

 awarded the honour of victor for the year: speculate indeed they did, 

 and freely did they back their favourites, but the speculation seemed 

 very harmless, and the backing was confined to words of praise and 

 encouragement, for I did not discover that their florins were hazarded 

 on the occasion, or that any betting took place. At length the king 

 and royal party arrived, and proceeded at once to the rough wooden 

 platform prepared for them near the starting and winning post. Now 

 the course was cleared by soldiers and mounted police, and the bell 

 rang for the racers to prepare: thirty-six horses started, and they 

 were all crowded together at a large stout pair of gates fixed across 

 the course, the sudden throwing open of which was to be the signal 

 for the start : the horses were, for the most part, poor lean weak ani- 

 mals, of neither bone nor symmetry, and all ridden by boys in their 

 usual shabby stable dress, distinguished only by calico sleeves of red, 

 yellow, blue, &c., which formed their colours. 



Suddenly the gates are thrown open, and off they dash, one over 

 another, helter-skelter, pell-mell : two were knocked over in the rush, 

 and fell where they were ; two bolted into the crowd at the sides, 

 from sheer terror, leaving men, women and children sprawling on the 

 ground : all were dashing against each other, so that you could 

 scarcely distinguish to what particular horse any particular rider 

 niight belong : all came out pushing, tearing, jostling, kicking, rearing, 

 amid a clatter of hoofs, while the little boys who rode them yelled 

 and spurred and flogged, and the spectators shouted and screamed 

 and applauded. Such was the " start ; " never was such confusion or 

 such a barbarous exhibition seen : seven or eight horses and boys; 

 were at once put hors de coinbat, and retired ; the rest became one by 

 one disentangled from the mass, found their respective places, got 

 away in tolerable order, and came round pretty well together, consi- 

 dering their numbers and the length of the course; but after the first 

 round wind began to tell, and while some gave up altogether, others 

 might be seen straggling in a long siring, with considerable intervals 



