AND OTHER SKETCHES 71 



YE OLDEN TIMES. 



A visit from Secretary Eraser of the Ontario Jockey 

 Club one day, who wished to refer to the files of The 

 Sportsman to fortify his mind respecting the antiquity of 

 some of the fixtures of the Club he so ably represents, 

 started my memory jogging back twenty years or so to 

 the days he desired to refer to. Some of the first names 

 that caught my eye were those of John Forbes, John L. 

 Quimby, Sam D. Page, Ras and Lean Burgess, Charley 

 Boyle, Pat Farrell, George Forbes (champion 150 yards 

 runner of America), nearly all of whom were residents 

 of Woodstock — then the Newmarket of Canada, now only 

 a sleepy hollow in connection with racing matters. 



There was a very warm bunch at Woodstock in those 

 days and there was no game from pitch and toss to par- 

 lor croquet that they wouldn't play and bet on. Wood- 

 stock could a little more than hold its own with any other 

 burg in Canada at pigeon shooting, foot racing, trotting, 

 running or any other game that might be proposed. 

 Judge Finkle was then interested in the thoroughbred 

 game. He owned a few real good ones and was never 

 so happy as when watching one of his own breeding 

 perform. Mr. Millman, another resident of the Oxford 

 county town, also owned a few good horses. 



When I think of some of the owners and turfmen who 

 used to foregather in the seventies, they'd pan out with 

 the best of the present-day lot : Joe Grand, John Hendrie, 

 C. L Douglas, Major Peel, Jack Munro, W. A. Bookless, 

 Jos. E. Seagram, Dr. Andrew Smith, Dr. Morton, Roddy 

 Pringle, James White, John Stanton, Archie Fisher, John 

 Shedden, and so I might go on at great length, but the 

 retrospect is a sad one, because of those I have named 

 nearly all lie under the turf they loved so well. John 

 Forbes, the first named, though a man of robust consti- 



