12 The Apocrypha 



rived from the Greek and meant near-sightedness. 

 "You get inside, and I will drive!" wzs. the quick- 

 witted cosmopolitan recognition of such profundity 

 by one of the New Yorkers. 



So, after a long Rip Van Winkle slumber, racing 

 was revived, and the new era of racing began which 

 is now so successfully carried on by the Country Club 

 of Brookline. The first Myopia Club races at Bea- 

 con Park drew an attendance of about eight hundred 

 people ; but as the purses were very small the guar- 

 antors were called on for very little money, if any, 

 to settle all bills. The races at the Country Club 

 are now attended by four to five thousand people, — 

 about all the grounds can accommodate comfortably. 



There must have lurked in the Puritan Boston of 

 1882 some of the Cromwellian strain (Cromwell 

 owned race-horses and ran them), as has been shown 

 by the increased interest in this sport. In 1882 the 

 Country Club was organized, which probably was 

 suggested by the possibilities of the greater field for 

 racing and other sports under a stronger club, nearer 

 Boston, Winchester being too far for afternoon 

 driving. 



As the Country Club absorbed the Myopia Club, 

 the latter dissolved in 1883. The Myopia Club 

 lived a useful life and did good missionary work in 

 suggesting the idea of country clubs near Boston, and 

 fairly earned the title of a mother of sport for this 



