… took place in the period from March to October, when fashionable nobility and gentry society moved from London or town houses to enjoy county estate life and a nearby urban race meeting’s multiple leisure attractions. Towns were well aware … betting on major races and high-stakes matches grew over time, encouraged by the elite associability of London clubs , coffeehouses or betting houses like Tattersall’s Turf Tavern, and from late in the century, the emergence of professional …