The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-08-23 00:00:00

WE YMOUTH RACES.

"From all I can learn, after a recent flying visit to that
favoured locality, the Weymouth Race Meeting will in
ail likelihood be abandoned this year, those who fail tole.
the brightness of tie colouring being in a majority. This
is much to he regretted, for it cannot be said that • town
possessed of all the natural alv adages of Weymouth will
stand well before the sporting worli when it confesses It.
illsiolitY to sustain a race gathering. Whether the meet-
ing is an advantage to the town or not is, of course, as
much matter hr argument as was the calour of the
chameleon. lam simply speaking according to my own
view of the ease. Here le an old established popular holi-
day meeting, in one of the most sporting counties—a
county rich, Indeed, in the traditions of sport of all kinds,
and within esey distance of the great ti aiming centres of
the West—dying from want of local support and inter-mt.
If it could hove been made into a jr,te-money meeting it
would doubtless have been flourishing, and In
many other parts of England the inhabitants
would have recognised the keeping up of the
fixture as a point of honour. However, tastes differ, it
would appear, and all the local money, I believe, has been
sulacribed towards the Roaatta. Several patrons of,
influence have not, however, been behlndhand at Wey-
mouth in the matter of the race meeting. Sir Frederic
Johnston., for one, annually subscribing a ' century', but
there must be apathy among the rank and file, and with no
one, or number of ones, caring to 'work off ' • debt of about
double that amount, the knell of Weymouth amongst
racing fixtures has, I am afraid, been rung. I do not
mean to ear that anything very grand in the way of sport
was ever witnessed, on the common adjacent to the well-
known seaside town, whose bay hes been termed the Eng-
lish Naples. Somehow or other racing in the West has
never attracted the main body of turfitas. But this was all
the greater reason why one of the oldest established free-
and-easy mcetlngs should be sustained for the delectation
of those who like to have a cut in where they think they
have a chance. I am afraid, however, that where there
was once two day's pleaaant_sport will this year he char-
factorised by • blank, and Weymouth will stand like a
modern Rachel weeping over her childsen. Times bars
altered, too, with this well-known watering.place in more
ways than one, it seems to me. Who, for instance, would
have dreamt • few years ago of an excursion of twelve
hundred Twickenhamltes all let loose at once on the
smooth sand for 'seven hours by the seaside,' or of about
three thousand Swindonites, both of which events were, I
believe, of recent occurrence. Race meetings, rafter all,
are to be likened to exotics, and will not flourish except
under suitable conditions. Weymouth lacks the right
kind of nourishment, or is powerless to evoke it, and after
worthy efforta on the part of • worthy band who hat .1
tried their utmost for the best, the verdict may be ex-
betted, unless unforeseen aid comes, that Weymouth SI •
I racing town must live in the past alone."-Bportinp ZAP.

THZ Orliled Service Gazelie regrete to learn that the
treatment of the Engineer officers of H.M.S.
" Hercules," the flagship of the Duke of Edinburgh, is
not what it shoed I be. Why were not these officers
enabled t) accept the invitation of the ward•room
officers to dinner, to meat the Duke, u July 20th
last? How about ordering all the engineer officers—
the chief excepted—to see the hammocks of two
stokers $ robbed? and adds, "Were it not that we
feel enured Ms Royal Highness would not for an
instant countenance the conduct of any officer in
behaving in an oppressive or tyrannical manner, we
would publish the whole story. Possibly, however,
reported coming court-martial wid throw some
light on the conduct o.mplained of."