CONCLUSION 355 



near the Heath, not to mention the salaries of the 

 many officials whom it had to employ. Besides, at a 

 very early period of its career it was as good as 

 a grandmother to the provincial meetings, offering 

 gratuitous advice and arbitration in the hour of dis- 

 pute and difficulty. Nor could it reasonably be 

 expected that the Club should supply subventions to 

 associations which it assisted gratis with its authority 

 and from which it derived no sort of emolument. As 

 to the Club's acceptance from time to time of 

 donations from private individuals (for instance, Lord 

 Stamford, Mr. Blenkiron, and — quite recently — Mr. 

 Rose), or from the town of Newmarket, or the Great 

 Eastern Railway, it is all very well to urge that it is 

 beneath the dignity of such a body to accept con- 

 tributions towards a show of which the members of 

 the Club are to all intents and purposes the proprietors, 

 that the mere offer of a donation is a reflection upon 

 the Club, as if it were needy or niggardly or inatten- 

 tive to a certain class of races ; but there is another 

 side to the question, and that is the ungraciousness 

 of refusing to let enthusiasts participate in the 

 promotion of the good cause. At any rate, the Club 

 is certainly less open nowadays than it was wont to 

 be to the charge of illiberality. It is to be feared, 

 however, that credit cannot be given to the Club for 

 having originated the idea of an institution with 

 which it is now intimately connected and which has 

 flourished under its auspices, the excellent Bentinck 



A A 2 



