The only 'moral' character required
in the jockey is the determination to do whatsoever may be agreed
upon or determined by those who are willing and able to give 'a
consideration' for the convenient accommodation.
But it is, or was, the associations, the inevitable concomitants,
of the turf and racing that stamp it, not only as something
questionable, but as a bane and infamy to the nation; and if
there is one spot more eminently distinguished for a general
rendezvous of fraud and gambling, that place is Newmarket.
The diversions of these plains have proved a decoy to many a
noble and ingenuous mind, caught in the snares laid to entrap
youth and inexperience. Newmarket was a wily labyrinth of loss
and gain, a fruitful field for the display of gambling abilities,
the school of the sharping crew, the academy of the Greeks, the
unfathomable gulf that absorbed princely fortunes.
The amusements of the turf were in all other places intermixed
with a variety of social diversions, which were calculated to
promote innocent mirth and gaiety. The breakfastings, the
concerts, the plays, the assemblies, attracted the circle of
female beauty, enlivened the scene, engaged the attention of
gentlemen, and thus prevented much of the evil contagion and
destruction of midnight play.
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