274 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



in the morning, just caught a train, voted, dined at the 

 club, and found an indignant member, who showed me a 

 letter in The Daily News of that day, which purported to 

 be signed by a member of my own club. There had been 

 a discussion as to the political prevalence of Members 

 of Parliament who had been "at Balliol under Jowett" 

 Lord Milner, Lord Curzon, Mr Asquith, etc. but 

 this letter said that " a feeling of nausea would be pro- 

 duced" when it was known that Mr William Allison, 

 Honorary Secretary of The Sporting League, had also 

 been at Balliol under Jowett, and had graduated in a 

 First Class. 



Armed with this Daily News, I had no difficulty at all, 

 on return to Newmarket, about my speech, following 

 Parson Parkes at the Conservative Club, for it was a 

 mere commonplace to illustrate the lengths to which our 

 opponents were carrying class distinctions. Here was 

 a humble being like myself held up to odium for hav- 

 ing obtained a First Class in an examination ! Why, my 

 friend Mr Parkes had also obtained a First Class in his 

 day, and as for the present company, I thought we were 

 all first class, and our opponents of no class ! That went 

 down well, and Parkes used to recount it to the end of 

 his life. 



The strange thing is that the man whose name was 

 signed to the letter in The Daily News denied having 

 written it, and the paper had to apologise for its 

 publication. 



