Related article: would benefit by the increase of an excellent national food supply, which should be within the reach of all. G. M. "Our Van." The National Hant at Melton Mowbray. — I have every reason for being thankful to the National Hunt Committee for taking me to Melton Mowbray on the 22nd of March, although the journey thither and hither was a matter of six hours longer than is entailed when the N.H. races are given to one of the enclosed meetings near London. If the matter were being discussed conversationally, polite- ness would compel me to give attention to whatever opinions others might be inclined to enunciate, but as a writer one can assume the dogmatic attitude, and I here venture to express the decided opinion that, to give a National Hunt race to a well-to-do ** Park " meeting is to accomplish the least amount of good with the means at command. Where the suburban enclosures are concerned the custom has been to give the races to the highest bidder, i.^., the 370 BAILY S MAGAZINE. [May one that would hold the races for the least amount by way of sub- sidy from the N.H. The trans- action has thus been degraded to a purely speculative one, for the natural consideration of the bidders has been whether the addition of the races to their programme would bring fresh grist to their mill. What would be best for steeplechasing is, I fear, left out of consideration for the moment ; and, although apathy in this direction should not be recklessly attributed to the N.H. Committee, they can scarcely complain if they are judged by their acts. The object of the N.H. races Vytorin Generic is to foster the steeplechasing spirit and, incidentally, to bring forward young horses. An individual possessed of similar benevolent plans and seeking to put them into execution would naturally ask as a first question, Where am I most likely to do the largest amount of good ? He would find himself confronted with a choice between two communities, that of the modern enclosure meeting and a hunt meeting. At the modern enclosure he will find as Buy Vytorin Online a back- bone of spectators several hundreds of people in ** Tattersall's," a number of whom are present for the Cheap Vytorin sole purpose of gambling, and with as little notion of improving the breed of horses as the pigeon shooter has of improving the breed of pigeons. Many hundreds more of both sexes will be found in the members' enclosure ; and when we have eliminated the owners and breeders from these we shall find the spirit animating the rest pretty much the same as that prevailing on the other side of the rails. To, say, a couple of thousand people it is a matter of complete indifference whether the race is a National Hunt steeplechase or one the winner of which is to be sold for £50, for they can bet as freely upon one as the other. Prevent them from betting and how many of the two thousand would be seen on the racecourse at all ? At the Hunt meeting the large majority of those present — the influential portion, to a man and woman — are there because of their love for the horse. Without that affection they would not be present at all ; and there is certainly little other inducement. The ** roar of the ring " is conspicuous by its insignificance, the bookmaker Vytorin Tablets being very properly pushed out of the way into an obscure corner by way of eloquent suggestion to him that he is merely tolerated and is not the power which he so manifestly is at the enclosures. Taking the Melton Hunt meeting, since that is our topic, what a contrast is here presented between the assemblage and that commonly met with at a ** Park " meeting ! What life and movement in that ever shifting squad of horsemen and women, boys and girls, to be counted by the hundred, at one minute gathered around the stand ; at the next scampering over the grass to catch the competitors at some special jump and then off again to intercept them at another. And in paddock and reserved enclosure the talk is of horses and of the men and women belonging to them ; and of those who are conversing how many are ever seen on the regulation racecourse, unless it be at Ascot or Goodwood ? What a contrast it all is to the metropolitan enclosure, with its irritating mob of pinchbeck sports- men and clouds of avaricious women, where the only recognised shibboleths are, *' What have you done tiiis time ? " and ** Oh, do give me a tip for this race," accord- ing to sex. The objects of the National Hunt races are surely more likely I90I.] K OUR VAN. »f 371 to be accomplished by bringing them into the midst of communities where they are most appreciated, and where, moreover, the money of the N.H. is more truly an addition and a help. Whether Sandown, Kempton and Hurst Park have a couple of National Hunt races in their programme or not signifies little or nothing to their coffers, which are full enough to enable them to give prizes of equal or greater value on their own, and the attraction to the average owner Vytorin Prices is the same. Some owners there are who look upon winning one of the N.H. races as second only to winning the Grand National, and men of this sporting type are precisely such as derive additional gratifica- tion from scoring their success at a Hunt meeting in the presence of Vytorin 10 an assembly of their own class. Is it too much to hope Vytorin Coupon that the N.H. Committee will, in future, look upon the matter in this light ? Its social composition warrants the aspiration. Three times in thirty-seven years hasthe Melton Hunt meeting been favoured with a National Hunt race, which is not overdoing