The rise and progress of the Goodwood Meeting may be briefly recorded.
Like Ascot, it is one of the fashionable gatherings of the season.
The Duke of Richmond and Gordon, on hospitable thoughts intent, opens
wide the doors of his commodious mansion; but as he can only entertain
a limited number of his own personal friends, the wonder is that the
stands are so crowded with spectators. The distance of Goodwood Park
from London is more than twice the distance of Ascot, and yet as many
persons seem to frequent the one meeting as the other; hundreds are
contributed from Brighton, Portsmouth, and other towns, and hundreds go
from and return to London every day of the meeting. All the towns and
villages in the vicinity of Goodwood Park are crowded by the strangers
who have come to assist at the meeting, Chichester, in particular,
being the abiding-place of a host of visitors. The houses and cottages
round about fill with lodgers, and country seats are crowded with
guests, all eager to take part in the brilliant scene which, in fine
weather, is worth making a day's journey to see.
The annual meeting in the Duke of Richmond's park forms a fine theme
for the pen of the descriptive reporter, and has been "gushed"
over, in certain of the daily newspapers, in "a perfect paroxysm of
word-painting phrases" during the last twenty years on each succeeding
anniversary of the race. Nor is the work of the "Economist," who
translated the silks and satins of the toilettes of "England's fairest
daughters" into vulgar money's worth, to be ignored. His estimate that
the dresses and "other belongings" of the four hundred and fifty most
fashionable women, from their dainty morocco shoes and silken sandals,
up to the wondrous head fabrics which crowned the high-born, delicate
ladies seen at the two great fashionable meetings of the season, would
cost at the least £200 for each person, is, perhaps, even too moderate;
the total cost of the toilettes of that army of the fair would,
perhaps, on the average of the Goodwood season, be full a £100,000. Was
it not, for instance, recorded by the public press in a scandal case,
that the Ascot and Goodwood trousseau of one fair but frail dame, of
twelve dresses and the accordant "other things" of shoes, fans, gloves,
lace and lingerie, had been charged £1,128? The "Economist's" argument
is that horse-racing, despite its evils, must be tolerated for the
good it does to trade, for the crowds it sends over the railways, for
the gospel of eating, drinking, and dressing which it so eloquently
preaches, all employing tradespeople, and, consequently, circulating
money.
Coming to the facts connected with the institution of the Goodwood
Meeting, it has to be stated on the authority of various historians,
that the meeting was founded in a sportive moment by some officers
of the Sussex Militia, in conjunction with the members of a local
hunt club. The races so organised first took place in the course of
the month of April, 1802, a good beginning being made with a purse
of £613, little more than the half of which was public money, the
sweepstakes entered for amounting to £300.
The meeting was in every respect a successful one, and was continued in
1803 and 1804, but with less popularity, the subscription having fallen
off to a very serious extent. In 1810, there were but two days of
sport, the money run for being a little over £200. Nor up till the year
1827 was there much improvement; till 1825 the public money subscribed
did not total up to a large sum, it varied from £80 to £300, whilst the
money received as sweepstakes amounted to something between £60 and
£600. Two years later, as has been stated, a great improvement began in
the financial resources of the meeting, as was obvious enough from the
amount of money which was run for, the total sum in that year exceeding
£2,000. In 1829 the racecourse was altered and improved, and the amount
of cash expended in the shape of stakes was £3,285. The year following
the new grand stand was opened; and in 1831 the Royal purse of 100 gs.
was procured to be annually run for.
From this period Goodwood races made great progress; and between the
years 1832 and 1835, the average annual amount of the stakes contested
for was £6,000. In 1837 the amount had increased to £11,145; and what
with the large sum of money spent upon improvements by the Duke of
Richmond, and the personal exertions and good management of the late
Lord George Bentinck, this meeting made such wonderful progress, that
in time it not only rivalled, but even eclipsed many of the other
principal meetings.
In 1845, the value of the stakes run for amounted to the large sum
of £24,909, a substantial proof that the title of Princely Goodwood
was not misapplied. These races, however, fell off somewhat after Lord
George Bentinck's death, but yet rank in the first class.
Ascot and Goodwood have been dwelt upon at some length, when compared
with the few pages devoted to Epsom and Doncaster; but in the case of
these meetings, a considerable portion of space has of necessity been
devoted to the Derby and St. Leger, which helps to make an even balance.