… it reveals that this leisure practice played a significant part in strategies of distinction through conspicuous consumption and sociable performance. The betting book: an object at the heart of a specific sociable practice Betting, … a bureaucratic aid. Enshrining one’s wager in the book for all to read was definitely part of the culture of conspicuous consumption. A betting book was placed on display for all club members to view, and thus acted as a ‘semi-official …
… (Blanchard, 1786), p.102-104. 11 . Mike Huggins, ’Urbs in Rure; Racegrounds, Grandstands and the Commercialized Consumption of Urban Leisure 1750-1805', Urban History (49,1, 2022), p.44-60. 12 . Oliver Cox, ‘”Newmarket, that Infamous …