TRUE FACTS ABOUT THE COUNTIES CLUB 



after all the worry. Then came the time when the 

 club was closed down, and the melancholy thing was 

 that the place was shut up just as everyone wanted it. 

 When abroad, I heard of the death of poor Cecil Drew, 

 who died very tragically. It was a terrible shock, 

 for I had been on very intimate terms with him. We 

 only fell out once, and after that little difference was 

 adjusted we were just as good friends as before. Drew 

 loved an open-air life, but would sit up late with the 

 best of them, yet nevertheless was up very early and 

 out on the Heath whenever he visited Newmarket. 

 He had a nice house in the country and loved every- 

 thing in the way of nature. A genial companion, he 

 made very few enemies, but was simply tired of 

 pouring money away on his Newmarket investments 

 long before I had anything to do with the show. I had 

 furnished a special suite for him at Willoughby House, 

 which, however, he had never taken possession of. 

 There seemed a sort of fatality about that place, but 

 the expense concerning it was not very great. I am 

 afraid that in connection with the Counties Club there 

 were not very many incidents connected with turf 

 history. 



When not at Newmarket I live at the Waldorf Hotel, 

 and Cecil Drew, a very early bird, would come up to 

 my room and have a chat about things in general. 

 Mr first steward — with his wife — was engaged from 

 the staff of his hotel, and I had as much sympathy 

 on occasions for him as for myself in those terrible 

 moments when we had to wander round the big build- 

 ing with an absolute lack of patronage. The day 

 after the King died I went down to Newmarket ; it 

 was the Saturday when the Jubilee had been postponed. 

 The terrible tragedy of King Edward's death seemed 

 to be more marked at Newmarket than anywhere, and 



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