71 SAM DARLING'S REMINISCENCES 



"Last evening therefore passed without any ex- 

 citing incident. We finished it with ' Auld Lang 

 Syne ' in approved style, cheers for the captain, 

 and so forth. It has been a long voyage, but a 

 very happy one. That is all I have time to write." 



After this came all the trouble of landing and 

 getting away from the docks, which you could not 

 do without having been carefully " vetted " for 

 plague, before leaving the dock gates. I put up 

 at the Queen's Hotel, Sea Point, which was quieter, 

 and probably more comfortable, than the Mount 

 Nelson, and found the country very pleasant, 

 though martial law was still on and it was necessary 

 to get a permit to go more than twenty miles from 

 Cape Town. 



Thanks to the late Mr. Graham Cloete, brother 



to Mr. Brodrick Cloete, we saw whatever was 



possible of South African racing, and 



and racing with Mr. AlUson I visited some stables, 

 of which the following is his report, 

 and it is a perfectly accurate one. 



" We went along the same day, January 30, 1902, 

 to see two training stables in that neighbourhood, 

 and though Mr. Darling had seen some rough ones 

 in Ireland, his eyes were somewhat enlightened by 

 these. The first was the establishment presided 



