A Mirror of the Turf; Or, The Machinery of Horse-Racing Revealed, Showing the Sport of Kings as It Is To-Day

by James Glass Bertram

To-day the railways convey the masses in large numbers to the different seats of sport. Thousands are now seen at Lincoln for the hundreds of the olden time; but in olden times the classes were more in evidence: county people came in their own carriages, often from considerable distances, to be present at their local meetings, "ladies in gay attire, and gentlemen in brave apparel;" but county ladies are somewhat chary at the present time of braving the rough-and-ready element which has become incidental to modern racing, and the very pronounced rowdyism by which it is accompanied.

The spectators of the various races who assemble on the course near Liverpool represent all classes, the middle class element being particularly strong. The favourite race at Aintree at the spring meeting is the Grand National Steeple-chase. On the day set apart for the decision of that event, the trains and other conveyances from the great port take tens of thousands to the scene, all anxious, if not to witness the exciting event, to gamble upon it, for it is not the sport that attracts the multitude, it is "the money." Men go upon racecourses for whom the horses and the work they are set to do have no charms; what they interest themselves about is the state of the odds. "Oh," said a so-called Liverpool "sportsman," "I don't care a copper about seeing the race. I never look at the performance. The horses go up in the air and come down in the ditches too often for my taste; one trembles for one's money as one sees the exhibition." There are doubtless many who hold similar opinions; indeed, it would be curious to know what proportion of the thousands who attend such a meeting as that held at Liverpool are there only for the sake of the sport, not probably ten per cent. of the number!

By the time Northampton is reached, the racing fraternity has been well shaken down, and the new hands in betting and bookmaking have got pretty well mixed up with the old. Acquaintances and "pals" have met once again, and Bill and Tom, and Dick and Harry, have shaken hands, compared notes, and exchanged small talk. All meet on the hail-fellow-well-met system. There is no formality. Nomenclature among the majority of racing-men seldom gets further than the Christian name, and even that must be abridged. The wealthiest bookmaker, no matter that he is able to keep a carriage for "the missus," and half-a-dozen gardeners to grow his grapes, and as many grooms to attend to the horses of his children, is only Ned, or Ted, or Jack, or Jim, to his fellows. In these matters the turf is a sad leveller. I have myself heard Mr. Dawson hailed as "Mat, old man," by a turf loafer whose whole wardrobe would scarcely fetch two half-crowns, and, "Well, Johnny," has been addressed to Mr. Osborne by a half-drunken cabman who fancied he was patronising that well-known horseman by addressing him so familiarly. The late Mr. Merry of St. James's Street, who was long connected with the turf, I remember knocked down a very cheeky turf vagabond, who had the impudence to address him as "Sam" in the presence of some members of his family.

It is not my cue to follow the racing crowd on tour, or to fill many of the following pages with an account of what takes place at every place of meeting. The seats of horse-racing are too numerous to admit of their being so dealt with; all I desire to do at present, is simply to give a brief notice of such of the classic horse-racing resorts as are endowed with a history, such as Chester, York, Doncaster, Ascot, Goodwood, and Epsom. The meetings which take place at Sandown and Kempton Parks I leave to be dealt with by other historians.

II.

To Chester must be awarded the merit of having first established regular meetings. Racing sport at that place has been traced back to the year 1511, since which 380 years have elapsed, and the races at Chester still flourish; the theatre of the annual sports being, as at the time indicated, the Rood Dee, which had always been the arena in which the Chester people displayed their powers. It was there where they contested the palm in archery, pedestrianism, wrestling, and similar sports, and also the place where they exhibited their skill in mimic warfare.

Although for nearly a hundred years racing of a kind took place between the walls of the city on one side, and the river on the other, it was not till 1609 that racing at Chester came to be organised in something like the shape of the racing contests of to-day. The first prizes given appear to have been a bell and a bowl, to be run for on St. George's Day; the donor of those gifts was the sheriff of the city, and the trophies were presented with much civic pomp and pretence. Trifling nowadays seem such gifts in the face of the thousands of pounds of added money, and the sideboard pieces of silver and gold which signalise many of the race-meetings of to-day throughout the three kingdoms.

The races held at Chester were originally promoted by the traders who carried on business there, such as the Company of Shoemakers and the Company of Drapers, and were celebrated, of course, on the various annual holidays of the far back times just mentioned. A quaint account of the original races run on the Rood Dee was drawn up in 1595, by "that Reverend man of God, Mr. Robert Rodgers, bachelor of Divinitie, Archdeacon of Chester, parsone of Gooseworth and Prebend in the Cathedral of Chester." This clerical worthy tells us that at Chester "there is held every year three of the most commendable exercises and practices of war-like feates, as running of men on foote, running of horses, and shootinge of the broad arrowe, and the butt shaft in the long bowe, which is done in very few (if in any) citties of England, soe farr as I understand."