The Life of a Great Sportsman 



of the meeting, being the presence of the noble Master of the 

 Buckhounds, attended by the Royal Huntsman and Whippers- 

 in, wearing their scarlet and gold liveries, followed by the 

 Yeomen Prickers in green plush with gold-laced hats, which 

 during the Victorian era constituted such a popular feature on 

 the Tuesday and Thursday. 



The veteran, Charles Davis, with his spare figure and 

 perfect seat on a horse, who for so long a period was associated 

 with Ascot, made a figure which will long dwell in the memory ; 

 whilst of the noble wearers of the gold couples in the writer's 

 time, perhaps none presented a braver appearance than the 

 then Earl of Hardwicke, familiarly known as the " Glossy 

 Peer," who, "got up" to perfection, according to custom, and 

 splendidly mounted, provoked nothing but favourable criticism 

 as he rode by in advance of the cavalcade. 



Though there is no denying its convenience, the motor- 

 car, looking at it from an ornamental point of view, is but a 

 sorry substitute for the lordly drag with its load of fair 

 occupants, which in former days was so much en evidence at 

 Ascot, and whose numbers have steadily diminished of late, 

 none the less so since the regimental coach is no longer coun- 

 tenanced by the military authorities. 



What splendid private equipages, too, of other sorts we 

 used to see on the famous heath ! One in particular the writer 

 has in his mind's eye, a light carriage belonging to a Princess 

 of France, which, with its four magnificent horses, their 

 harness one mass of silver, with coachmen, footmen, and out- 

 riders in liveries of sky blue and silver, and wearing well- 

 curled flaxen wings under their velvet jockey caps, was the 

 centre of an admiring crowd, both on arrival and departure. 



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