216 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



Hawkins, who was a vicious old Radical, and anything 

 but the sportsman he is generally represented to have 

 been. 



The next thing was getting rid of the starting diffi- 

 culty, which got worse and worse under the flag system 

 as the years went on. I incurred no little odium for 

 some years because I persistently advocated the in- 

 troduction of the starting gate. The late Mr Kennedy, 

 a very good fellow individually, used to go mad against 

 me in a little paper which he published, and I further 

 maddened him by alluding to it as " an obscure sheet." 

 He had no sense of humour and could not take a hit 

 like that without serious resentment. 



Be that as it may, I think there are few, if any, who 

 remember that period who will not agree that my 

 persistent advocacy accelerated, if it did not actually 

 cause, the introduction of the starting gate. 



Many and various were the gates tried at that initial 

 period, but Slingsby's has always proved the best. 

 Originally there was unbreakable webbing in place of 

 the present tapes, and some starting gates had elastic 

 attachments to relieve the pressure of a break-away ; 

 but jockeys used to regard this webbing with natural 

 apprehension. Charles Archer once said to one of them : 

 "You'll never come up against anything more serious 

 than that until they let you down by it at the finish ! " 

 And it was quite true, as was soon discovered, so that 

 now only breakable tapes are used. 



There may be great possibilities of improving starting 

 gates, but I think no one wishes to go back to flag- 

 starting, nor will anyone old enough to remember the 

 period deny that I was the main factor in the introduc- 

 tion of gate starting. The actual Jockey Club introducer 



