CHAPTERS FROM TURF HISTORY 



the Stockbridge and Bibury Club meetings were 

 held is one of severe gradients, and offers more 

 reward to stamina than mere speed. Indeed, the 

 severity which makes it so admirable as a training 

 ground somewhat spoils it for racing purposes. 

 The races have been discontinued these twenty- 

 three years, but the stands remain, from which 

 many a close struggle has been witnessed of horses 

 battling up and down the dips as the winning- 

 post was approached. These structures are now 

 rapidly falling into decay ; but one still serves 

 for the evening entertainment of the stable-boys, 

 and another for a chapel where the local priest 

 says Mass for the benefit of the Irish employes 

 of the adjoining training establishments, and hears 

 confessions, which must give his reverence — if he 

 has any mind for the sport — material for interest- 

 ing and sometimes profitable reflection. It would 

 seem that the observance of religious discipline 

 has been inherited at Danebury. In the time of 

 John Day the boys were compelled to attend 

 two services on Sunday, and, after these devotions, 

 were assembled in the trainer's dining-room, where 

 he read them one of Blair's discourses, with a 

 whip at hand, which he used for the benefit of 

 any member of the congregation who chanced to 

 slumber. 



Vox domini furit instantis virgamgue ieneniis.'^ 



After the turn is made from the Andover road 

 and passing along the lane which winds through 

 the sleepy Wallops, the trainer's house is soon 

 reached. It lies in a pleasant hollow in the midst 

 of stables and paddocks. Here reigned the famous 



* Juvenal, xiv. 63. 

 62 



