246 KINGSCLERE 



If they do it, we shall have to follow suit." Which 

 the " Sporting Life" eventually did. To everybody's 

 amazement, the ''Sporting Gazette," which was 

 edited by Mr. W. H. Langley, came out with an 

 announcement to the effect that " Special Training 

 Notes" would thenceforward be given in that journal. 

 This was "real jam" to the "Sportsman," which 

 ironically acknowledged the compliment to its enter- 

 prise in an article headed "The Sincerest Flattery." 

 The writer, 1 however, little knew what a rod Mr. 

 Langley had in pickle. The " Special Training 

 Notes," compiled exclusively for the "Sporting 

 Gazette," amounting to an elaborate burlesque, were 

 introduced in the following terms : — 



We have great pleasure in laying before our readers, 

 in accordance with our announcement last week, the first 

 instalment of those SPECIAL TRAINING NOTES which will 

 in future form one of, we hope, not the least attractive 

 features of this journal. It will be readily understood that 

 the difficulties in the way of carrying out such an under- 

 taking as that to which we have resolved, after mature 

 reflection, to devote our capital and enterprise, are very 

 great. The obstacles in the way of obtaining accurate 

 information, except by means . from which our unim- 

 peachable purity of purpose would shrink, are very 

 great ; and what with the difficulty of procuring trust- 

 worthy and talented agents, and the certainty of their being 

 either suborned or maltreated by the brutal myrmidons 

 of suspicious trainers, the enterprise is one involving 

 surpassing labour, anxiety, and expense to its projectors. 



It was the late Mr. R. B. Wormald, and nobody laughed more 

 heartily than he did when he found how neatly he and the Sportsman 

 had been ' done.' 



