CHAPTER XII 



Eacecourses that were and are not — Thunder at Stamford— ^ 

 How I missed him — Stamford's extinction : reason — Mr. Sam 

 Merry and Davies the Leviathan — Mr. Merry's stratagem — 

 Davies's good humour — Shrewsbury — Mr. John Frail — 

 " Passage of arms " with Mr. Attorney-General Cockburn — 

 Funny things at Shrewsbury — " A NewEace " — The getting- 

 home stakes — An undesirable entry — The difficulty solved — 

 We go for the " undesirable " — An extraordinary race — The 

 sharing of the spoils — Egham — Mr. James Weatherby loses 

 his watch — Mr. Lef evre's opinion of racecourse thieves' clever- 

 ness — The watch again disappears — And again — "For the last 

 time." 



Many an interesting article could be written about 

 meetings that have been and are no more. One 

 sees at odd times in the papers references to 

 departed Croydon and 'Appy 'Hampton, now re- 

 suscitated as Hurst Park. The suppression of the 

 former was no matter of genuine concern, for it 

 could never aspire to the dignity of Gatwick. But 

 there are some resorts one could have wished en- 

 during life, and among them may be placed Stamford, 

 which faded from the fixture list in 1874. One of 

 the best straight miles existed at Stamford, and to 

 old stagers its final meeting (1873) was rendered 



152 



