36 THE ENGLISH TURF 



Mile Bottom to the " top of the town " I do not know, 

 but the starting-post for the Beacon Course (4 miles 

 397 yards in length) is only a few fields away on our left, 

 quite close to the road, and the land on either side of the 

 road is, from this point onwards, mostly laid out in stud 

 farms. Still, little is to be seen by the traveller by road, 

 which winds through an avenue of trees for at least three 

 miles, and only emerges therefrom at the old toll-bar, hard 

 by the head of the July Course. A mile before reaching 

 this point we have passed the Lordship Farm training 

 establishment of Mr. Joseph Cannon ; but the glories of 

 the " heath " are invisible until the toll-gate is reached, 

 and here Newmarket is in panorama before us. We are on 

 the fringe of a wide and sweeping plain, with considerable 

 undulation in places, and the town itself situated about 

 half-way up. 



Immediately beside us is the " Ditch," a prodigious de- 

 fensive construction of earth, of which the raised escarp- 

 ment is far more prominent than the ditch at its base. 

 It is some twenty feet in height, and about its origin there 

 are many stories. I do not know that any really authentic 

 account of its construction is to be found, but Mr. W. C. 

 Manning, the well-known racing official, and an authority 

 on such matters, says that it was made by the East Angles 

 somewhere about 600 B.C., and that it was built as a line 

 of defence. Its chief uses now are threefold. In the first 

 place it serves to hide the July Course trial ground from 

 sight ; secondly, it offers an admirable coign of vantage 

 to spectators of racing on the July Course, which is often 

 spoken of as " behind the Ditch " ; and, thirdly, it is an object 

 of veneration with the superstitious racing man, who never 

 omits to take his hat off or bow to it when he catches 

 sight of it from the train window on his way to a meeting. 

 The " Ditch " stretches from Dullingham nearly to Reach, 

 a distance of about six miles, and it is very like a disused 

 railway embankment that has been spokeshaved from the 

 bottom, on either side, almost to a point at the top. 



Standing on the top of the " Ditch," where it crosses the 

 road, looking east, with our backs towards Newmarket, 



