Related article: influence of fear, when he may
perspire freely for a short time
and thereby lose appreciably in
weight.
To revert for a moment to the
chemical constituents of the food
of the American 'varsity oarsman
(and athlete) in training. The
investigators remark that their
analyses of food show a striking
difference between the quantity
of muscle and flesh-forming food
consumed by the men in training
and men following an ordinary
way of life ; the former taking 45
per cent., or nearly half as much
again.
I90O.]
209
"Our Van."
Goodwood. — Every meeting at
which the classes are wont to fore-
gather was visibly affected by the
results of the war, but a series of
misfortunes were specially reserved
for Goodwood, as though to wreck
it as far as possible. They were
national misfortunes, and, as one
of our national institutions, the
Goodwood meeting had to share
them, and I think it got rather
more than its fair proportion. The
Chinese troubles, coming before
the South African campaign is
over, did not tend to inspire people
with the holiday spirit proper to
the enjoyment of a society gather-
ing; but with an absolute crash,
as it were, came, one after the
other, the assassination of the King
of Italy, and the death of the
second son of Her Majesty the
Queen. The last-mentioned la-
mented occurrence of course
meant that there would be no
royal party, nor, with one excep-
tion, were there any royal horses
running either; and it had been
intended to run several. No race-
goer needs to be told that the
glories of Goodwood are not as
resplendent as they were. One
hoped almost against hope that
things would revive. With the
view of restoring the Goodwood
Cup to something like its old
importance its value has been
doubled, and there was a general
feeling in society that an effort
should be made to keep up the
fine old meeting. But every act
and resolution was hopeless in the
face of such a series of knock-down
blows ; and, as though these were
not sufficient, the weather broke
down completely by way of making
absolutely certain that nothing
should be left undone that could
help to mar the meeting.
On the first day the weather
was passably fine, and, all things
considered, the attendance was as
good as could have been anticipa-
ted. After that matters went from
bad to worse. Every day the rain
poured, drenching the luncheon
tables, which were about one-third
fewer in number than usual, and
d windled away day by day. People
felt miserable and dull and did not
strive to hide their feelings.
One would not arrive at a correct
view of the situation by taking this
year as a standard. The imme-
diate causes of the dulness and
desolation were within the control
of no one. So much being granted,
it nevertheless remains that the
progressive decay of the meeting,
which needs no searching for, has
been accelerated by more or less
preventible causes, but these are
best not mentioned here. It is
quite in the best interests of the
meeting to say this ; whilst every
turf writer must, or should, take
pride in upholding a time-honoured
institution like Goodwood.
Seeing that Goodwood is more
than five miles from Chichester
station, no race should be fixed
for later than half-past four. A
five o'clock race is rarely over
before a quarter past, and, in the
face of the blocks of traffic that
unavoidably occur on the road, it
is impossible to catch the earlier
specials unless the last race is
missed. Thus trains go away not
half filled, whilst later ones are
much overcrowded, the holders of
inferior class tickets forcing their
way into the first-class carriages
with impunity. When so much
opportunity presents itself to the
average race-goer, who takes his
racing as a relaxation from his
professional or business cares, to
race at his ease, he is not inclined
to go through the many disagree-
2IO
BAILY S MAGAZINE.
[September
ables attending four consecutive
days' racing at Goodwood. The
meeting will come to depend more
and more upon the purely society
element, and that is why every-
thing should be done to make
matters comfortable for that class.
The good old adage of Let well
alone does not apply here, for
things are not well, and some
remodelling of arrangements seem
advisable, even if a reserve has
to be created with an enhanced
charge for admission.
There is one class which always
thoroughly enjoys the meeting,
looking forward to it a long time
ahead. This is the humbler class
of resident within a radius of, say,
twenty miles. These turn up each
year with undiminished ardour
and keenness for enjoyment.
Goodwood is the only race meet-
ing they know of. It is to them
what Epsom is to the holiday-
making cockney, who does not
care Generic Carvedilol what the excuse is for the
gathering of people. For there
are the swings and other simple
forms of amusement that still
flourish away beyond the carriage
enclosure, a quarter of a mile or
more from the winning post. This
is an element that may be relied
upon to give Goodwood its sup-
port for all time ; but it will
not keep the meeting going.
The by no means novel experi-
ment of getting a road cheaply
repaired was adopted of bestrew-
ing a considerable portion of it
with heavy gravel. By the end
of the fourth day this had been
ground in as by a roller, which was
probably the end in view, but it
does not seem to me a nice way of
treating paying visitors to get them
to play the part of steam roller. It
is certainly cruel on the horses.
The exception amongst the
horses of the Prince of Wales
that has been mentioned was
Lucknow, who had become so
great a favourite with the public,
who thought him ** chucked in "
for the Steward's Cup, that it
was deemed but an act of justice
to allow him to run, which he
did in Marsh's colours. The
handicapper never entertained
any fear of Lucknow spoiling his
handicap, and the Prince's horse
ran precisely in accordance with