218 THE ENGLISH TURF 



horses sets in, and as one consequence Newmarket can 

 challenge the world with its collection of handsome and 

 comfortable residences, to some of which the word sumptuous 

 might almost be applied, with their fine gardens, trim lawns 

 for croquet and lawn-tennis, billiard-rooms, and cellars con- 

 taining choice vintages. You will not meet with elsewhere 

 a better-groomed set of men, with whom it is quite the 

 ordinary thing to be tall-hatted, frock-coated, kid-gloved, 

 patent-leather-booted, instead of breeched and gaitered. 

 Their wives hold their own in elegance and style, and their 

 children are brought up to appreciate the brighter side of a 

 trainer's career. The stranger to Newmarket is lost in 

 wonderment at the residences of trainers that meet him 

 on all hands as the several roads radiating from the town 

 are traversed. Not one whit less attractive are many of the 

 quarters of other trainers, such as have their homes on the 

 Hampshire or Berkshire downs, for instance ; and I have 

 more than one lovely typical country place in my mind's 

 eye as I write, but into the lives of the occupants of these 

 the stress of social competition does not enter. 



But, however he may be housed or clothed, and whatever 

 his social aspirations, it is certain that the trainer to be 

 successful must be a well-grounded master of his business. 

 It is pre-eminently one into which it is impossible for the 

 incapable to enter, and we may be sure that the creaseless 

 frock-coats, to which sportive reference has been made, cover 

 stablemen to whom little remains to be taught in the art of 

 bringing horses of varying temperaments and constitutions 

 in the very best fettle to the starting-post. Whoever thinks 

 that because a man likes to live in a state approaching 

 luxury, and to dress according to the fashion, he is merely 

 the " gilded popinjay " of his profession, is likely to fall into 

 grievous error. Whether our trainers live in palaces or 

 humble tenements, they form a very sound and capable 

 body of practitioners. It is not uninteresting to compare 

 their present pecuniary position with that of their prede- 

 cessors. Not long since Whitewall, Malton, where John 

 Scott trained so many classic winners, was sold, with several 

 cottages, for no more than ;^i,ooo. I had visited the spot 



