The Northumberland Plate, still run for at Gosforth Park, the Great Ebor Handicap, and the Liverpool Cups, as also the Cumberland Plate, were all of them some twenty-five years ago favourite betting races. They are no longer, however, what they were; but bettors have the Jubilee Stakes at their service, as also such events as the Royal Hunt Cup, run at Ascot, and the Stewards' Cup, decided at the Goodwood Meeting. These are races on which plenty of speculation takes place, so that the loss of the "great" handicaps is not of much moment, there being so many other outlets for the gambling instinct of the nation, which was never so strong as it now is. The races for the Ascot Stakes and the Goodwood Stakes do not give rise to betting of any consequence till the days set for their decision; nor does speculation, as of old, begin on the Portland Plate, decided at Doncaster, till the names of the runners are known. The big handicaps brought off at Manchester during the Whitsuntide holidays, and at a later period, give rise to an immense amount of betting, especially among the masses. These handicap notes might be considerably extended. Some of the recently introduced races represent big stakes, ranging from one to six thousand pounds, so that they are worth winning. The race for the City and Suburban has even of late years been improved, and is now worth a thousand pounds to the owner of the winning horse. A glance at any of the turf guides will show that there is almost a plethora of racing; but betting men, be they ever so industrious, cannot go on day after day figuring the odds against everything. Racing fashions are bound to change. It is of little use, therefore, mourning over the decadence of the Chester Cup, or any of the other "great" handicaps of "auld lang syne," when there are so many events which afford better opportunities to the horse and greater scope to those who care nothing for the animal, except as an instrument of gambling. NOTES ON MEMORABLE MATCHES. Match-making, and the running-off of matches, was in the beginning of racing, and in later times as well, a favourite mode of sport; a volume, indeed, and an interesting one, might be written on that branch of the history of horse-racing, which is still to some extent carried on, matches being occasionally resorted to as one means of settling which of two is the better horse. It is not my purpose to do more at present than chronicle, by way of "sample," half-a-dozen of the more memorable matches, two or three of which may be said to have become historical.