HOME DETAILS 231 



tumulus, and has been excavated twice with 

 the expectation of finding a coffin made of gold, 

 which was supposed to contain the body of one 

 of the early kings. 



At the time of the great manoeuvres in Wilt- 

 shire, twenty-five thousand troops passed Beck- 

 hampton stables, and one of the troopers took a 

 very sick horse into the yard without permission, 

 and there drenched the horse. This horse died 

 on the road, within a mile and a quarter of Beck- 

 hampton, and the fever caught from this horse 

 was so virulent that it went the round of all the 

 Beckhampton stable, the loss being inconceivable. 

 Among other valuable horses irretrievably damaged 

 for racing was Cornstalk (by Trenton out of 

 Glare). I had the highest expectations of him 

 for long distance races ; and now his lack of a 

 racing record has rendered it very difficult indeed 

 to obtain patronage for him as a stallion. Al- 

 though all the farmers got compensation for 

 damage done in the neighbourhood I did not get 

 a penny ; only a promise, through Mr. Arnold 

 Forster, Secretary of State for War, that no 

 cavalry should ever pass close to my stables again, 

 but they did ; so some time afterwards, hearing 

 that troops were going through, I took it upon 

 myself to nail placards on the trees in the village 

 as follows : 



