198 In Scarlet and Silk 



horses behind them, too, that clay — Prince 

 Charlie, the "King of the Eowley mile"; 

 Wenlock, who subsequently won the St. 

 Leger ; and Lord Falmouth's Queen's Mes - 

 senger, to wit. 



Amongst the most interesting of latter- 

 day turf celebrities must be classed the late 

 Alec Taylor, of Manton. A greater master 

 of his art never lived than " grim old Alec," 

 as he was called. " Grim " in a sense he 

 might be, but speaking for myself, I can 

 safely say that not only was his grimness 

 never shown to me, but that I always found 

 him one of the cleverest men — entirely apart 

 from his training skill — I ever met. It was 

 my good fortune to stay near Manton, regu- 

 larly riding the morning gallops each day, for 

 some weeks, in 1888, and every hour I found 

 some fresh amusement and pahidum for the 

 mind in Alec Taylor's dry and caustic humour. 

 After the work had been got through one 

 morning, and whilst my arms were still 

 aching from the attentions of the hard-pulling 

 Stourhead, the great trainer invited me to 



