SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



Chester, and by his not doing so we might easily 

 have lost heavily. No thanks were due to him that 

 the commission had not been executed. 



" What's to be done ? " said Mr. Clark. 



" Nothing, apparently. But if you like I will go 

 down and see the colt." 



" Do." 



And there and then I started for Royston. The 

 stables of the trainer were by no means of an ornate 

 character, nor were they spacious as a market-place. 

 They were more fit for herding swine in than housing 

 thoroughbred stock. The colt, I saw, was in hope- 

 less plight, and I expressed myself pretty plainly to 

 the master of the place, rating him for the state of 

 his stables and his negligence in not writing to 

 Chester. Very high words passed, and we parted 

 without assuming the formality of friendship. 



" Don't you," wrote the trainer to Mr. Clark, 

 " ever send that Newgate Knocker down to see me 

 again." 



The illness of Mr. Sykes was of prolonged character, 

 and, not the first of his kind, he drifted into the 

 lowest equine society. If my memory is not at 

 fault, the next I saw of him was at Egham, on the 

 30th day of August, 1855 : that is, after a space of 

 two years from the time his trainer wrote of me as 

 a " Newgate Knocker," a term of opprobrium which 



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