CHAPTER XXII 



HOTEL INCIDENTS 



Richard Fry's Methods — Forced to win over La Fleche — A Champion 

 Feeder — One Thousand Pounds or a Commercial Failure — I retire 

 from Leather — Teas and Boarding-house — My Paper, the Queue 



During all these days of business there was always a 

 close touch with racing, and the hand was kept in by 

 writing articles and some short stories, besides wliich 

 there were occasional turf letters abroad. These 

 used to be done quite comfortably in slack moments. 

 The late Harry Heard, at the old Neptune in Liverpool, 

 was a good fellow, and at race times, then as now, there 

 was a good muster. The late R. H. Fry made the 

 Neptune his headquarters when in the city, where he 

 had once kept a shop. Many were the visits paid 

 to Fry in the evening when an owner wanted to get 

 advantageous terms about a horse. When Ring- 

 master ran for the Liverpool Summer Cup, won by 

 Veracity, Val Crasweller, J. E. Savile and I walked 

 down there. I waited while they interviewed Fry 

 and backed Ringmaster to win five thousand 

 pounds. Fry was to have the market to himself. 

 The price was not to be less than a hundred to 

 seven nor longer than twenty to one. It saved 

 a lot of trouble and Fry was a most fair-dealing 

 man and did many commissions that way. 



At the George Hotel in Edinburgh, where I stayed, 

 the late Sam Hall of Birmingham, brother of A. B. 

 Hall, who owned the business of H. Greaves at the 



^37 



