60 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



"Daily Graphic" Wednesday, 2*jth May 1891. 



THE EVE OF THE DERBY (III.) 



NOTES ON NEWMARKET HEATH 



By " BLINKHOOLIE " 



THE last moment has now come for deciding what, 

 if anything, to do in the way of speculation on the 

 Derby. Newmarket is desolate, all the Epsom candi- 

 dates having departed for the scene of action, and 

 the peculiar persons who style themselves " New- 

 market correspondents," but whom others call " touts," 

 have nothing much to do but argue with one another 

 over " Scotch cold " or other seductive beverages, till 

 they settle to their own satisfaction what will win. It is 

 a curious thing, but the touts are almost invariably wrong. 

 It is not, as some suppose, that they do not take the 

 trouble to watch the horses at all. No, they work hard 

 at their vocation ; but they never manage to overcome 

 their ignorance of horse-flesh. Therefore, except for the 

 simple purpose of letting you know whether a horse is 

 in work or not, the tout is useless, or worse ; and at 

 times he will even write of animals doing striding gallops 

 when they have long ago been turned out of training. 

 The tout is, indeed, a valuable friend to trainers and 

 owners who have a good thing and want to back it, for 

 the special information given by the astute watcher to 

 the public is practically certain to be of a misleading 

 character. Therefore the days when touts were con- 

 signed to horse ponds or otherwise maltreated are now 

 no more ; touts are, in fact, quite popular and welcome 

 on Newmarket Heath, as on other training grounds, 

 for it is well known that they are harmless, though the 

 public considers them necessary. Some of them are, 



