STARTING A CLUB 



trouble already with the death of the King, and that 

 if he and others insisted on their names coming off it 

 would do us serious injury. What his private reasons 

 were need not be gone into. However, he gave his 

 sanction to let his name remain for another month. 



There were some very elegant enamelled club badges 

 — life members and ordinary. Then came the difficulty 

 as to what social lines the club was to be run on. Several 

 of the jockeys had put the question to me, as it was 

 natural they should want to know how they stood with 

 regard to the Turkish baths, a necessity for them. I 

 gave my views that, with regard to men high in the 

 social scale, they all were " waiting " to see what each 

 other did ; one or two told me frankly that they 

 would look on for a year or two, and see what was going 

 to be done with the place. From the very start I had 

 my own idea that the only way to attract membership 

 was to make it thoroughly cosmopolitan. For instance, 

 there were several well-known layers of odds, such as 

 Ted Hopkins, who always had a suite of rooms reserved 

 for him, so it was agreed that all reputable persons 

 should be eligible ; and then the ten guineas began to 

 roll in and there were several foreign members at five 

 guineas — men who came over from France occasionally 

 to Newmarket. The best part of the jockeys joined, 

 and I must say that they were the most grateful for 

 what was supplied to them. 



I engaged a ladies' orchestra of three, but, by heavens ! 

 how I wish I hadn't, for at odd times between meetings 

 when no member save myself, and perhaps one other, 

 was in the club the place became as dead as a morgue. 

 Still that piano, violin and 'cello would drone away 

 at waltzes and selections, while I sat in a small office 

 on the balcony overlooking the winter gardens, hearing 

 the drip, drip, drip of the melancholy fountain, heard 



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