568 Report of the Senior Steward of Implements at Nottingham. 
The weather during the week was disappointiug. and on 
Monday and Wednesday a good deal of rain fell. The attend- 
ance of the public, notwithstanding, was of the most gratifying 
kind, and if Nottingham cannot boast of the largest amount of 
gate-money in the annals of the Society, it has at least achieved 
the proud pre-eminence of sending the largest number of people 
into the show-yard on any one day. On Thursday the 12th 
July the phenomenal number of 88,832 persons paid for ad- 
mission, and taking into consideration the exhibitors and their 
assistants, the staff, members of the Society, season ticket holders, 
and others entitled to free admission, it is hardly an over-esti- 
mate to say that there must have been a hundred thousand people 
on the ground. Those who saw the on-coming crowds from the 
top of the Lenton Lodge could only liken them to a swarm of ants 
bearing down upon WoUaton. At the time of gi'eatest pressure 
all the exits were turned into entrances, and the stewards of 
finance, the secretary and all his available staff were taking 
shillings in their hats, in their pockets, or in pouches, in order 
to relieve the pressure on the turnstiles, which clicked inces- 
santly for hours. 
The fiorures as to the attendance were indeed so interestinof 
that I asked the Secretary to compare them with the records of 
past years, and I subjoin the memorandum which he has sent 
me on the subject. 
On the Thursday of the Nottingham Meeting the number of persons that 
paid for admission (88,832) was the largest in the annals of the Society.' 
The nearest approach to these figures was on the Thursday of the Newcastle 
meeting last year, when the attendance was 77,410. The first shilling day 
always has had, indeed, a special attraction for visitors, and it may be in- 
teresting to record the numbers on each occasion when the attendance has 
exceeded 50,000 in one day. 
1861. Leeds 73,824 
1864. Newcastle .... 56,902 
1868. Leicester .... 52,829 
1869. Manchester. . . . 57,129 
1871. AVolverhampton . . 52,466 
1873. Hull 50,312 
1876. Birmingham . . . 58,384 
„ (second \s. day) 61,567 
1877. Livei-pool .... 51,313 
1879. Kilburn 50,255 
(2nd Is. day, Safurday) 
1881. Derby 53,291 
1883. York 63,097 
1887. Newcastle .... 77,410 
1888. Nottingham . . . 88,802 
' The number was also the largest one-day's total in the history of exhibi- 
tions of recent times, and is believed to have been onl}' exceeded in the jcar 
of the Great Exhibition of 1851, when in the last week (October C-11), 
103,516 persons passed the turnstiles on the Monday, 104,630 on the Tuesday, 
105,663 on the Wednesday, and 86,887 on the Thursday — the last shilling day. 
{Fint ItejmH Hoy. Commrs. of 1851, Appx. xvi.). There are stated to bo only 
two other occasions besides these of 1851, and the Newcastle and Nottingham 
Shows of the Society in 1887 and 1888, when more than 75,000 persons pa.d 
for admission at any Exhibition on a single day, viz., at the Colonial and 
Indian Exhibition on the Whit Monday and August liank Holiday of 1886, 
when 80,294 and 81,516 admissions respectively were recorded. — E.G. 
