252 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



style. But the trouble was none the less very serious, 

 and I had by this time realised it as none of the other 

 directors or the manager appeared to have done. I 

 succeeded in carrying resolutions at a Board meeting 

 that the directors should forgo the whole of their fees, 

 that the secretary should be reduced one half, and that 

 the manager should receive half-a-year's salary and be 

 dispensed with altogether. 



Lord Falmouth, I argued, had needed no manager 

 other than Bowman, who was now our stud groom. 

 What more was needed than that a director should go 

 down to Cobham every week, to see that all was going on 

 weU? 



These resolutions being carried, I went back to Leeds, 

 thinking that the Company was saved. 



But the vested interests proved too strong. Another 

 meeting was called which I was unable to attend ; the 

 resolutions were rescinded and it was decided that 

 the manager should remain on at half salary and that the 

 directors should have half fees. This was no remedy 

 at all, and, as I told the manager, he had far better have 

 cleared out with 500 in his pocket when the Company 

 was ostensibly a great success than hang on and thus be 

 connected with a failure which was certainly impending. 

 Had he gone, people would have said that all would 

 have been well had he remained. However, he would not 

 or could not see the matter in this light, and I was more 

 or less powerless, away at Leeds ; so the Company went 

 on floundering to its doom. 



The final touch was given when it was decided to 

 employ Mr Herbert Rymill as auctioneer for the yearling 

 sale of 1879. 



The reason of this was curious. Messrs Tattersall 

 had for the past year or two been somewhat victimised 

 by yearling buyers who failed to pay, and they proposed 

 in the future to charge 10 per cent, commission on all 

 lots for which they gave delivery orders. Other lots, 

 whose buyers paid cash, were to be at 5 per cent, com- 



