32 THE ENGLISH TURF 



her meeting at Doncaster. To begin with, if he wishes to 

 stay in the town itself and at a hotel, he must secure a room 

 weeks beforehand, and the choice of hotels at Doncaster is 

 exceedingly limited. I need not go into minute particulars, 

 it being sufficient to state broadly that he will have to pay at 

 least a guinea a night for his bed, however miserable the 

 accommodation, and that the charge for his breakfast and 

 dinner will be raised proportionately. He will probably 

 be crowded, uncomfortable, and badly waited on, and if he 

 is a coffee-room visitor, will find that coffee-room invaded 

 at all hours of the day by a crowd of burly " Tykes," 

 whose appetites are in keeping with their enormous pro- 

 portions. 



I have in my mind the principal hotel of another town, 

 where the great racing army foregathers two or three times 

 a year, and this inn is in an ordinary way a really good one. 

 I have had occasion to visit it in the hunting season, and 

 have then been made most comfortable, but at race times 

 the discomfort is almost indescribable. It has been my lot 

 to survive a three days' stay at this hostelry several times, 

 and on one occasion I made a few notes of what occurred. 

 Although I had then been using the hotel at race times for 

 some years, and had taken the precaution to order a room 

 some weeks in advance, I was informed, when after some 

 lapse of time the head boots recognised me, that "the 



missus says you are to sleep out in Street." I struck 



against the contemplated arrangement, and after a while 

 was escorted to an attic on the top floor. The room 

 was good enough, but the furniture was beneath contempt, 

 and a fourth-rate old tall hat on the top of the chest of 

 drawers and a hard-featured black hair-brush on the thing 

 that represented the toilet table showed signs of occupation. 

 The boots grinned, and when I asked him what it meant, 

 informed me that he thought " some of the extra waiters 

 were using the room." I descended again, and after a 

 deal of argument succeeded in procuring more comfortable 

 quarters. It was then time to go to the races, and the hour 

 that should have been devoted to luncheon was lost. On 

 my return the coffee-room was invaded by a rush of men. 



