35© TRAINERS AND JOCKEYS. 



sight of those games in honour of Flora, at which we 

 are told Cato himself once was present, and retired 

 lest, as he said, the sight of his austere countenance 

 should hinder the enjoyment of the other spectators ; 

 a true revival of the amaranthine pleasures of past 

 ages. It is true that our forefathers were not 

 strangers to the little attentions due to ladies, nor 

 backward in paying them. It is true that to the 

 assemblage of the two sexes they attributed their 

 chief comfort as well as pleasure in life. But it was 

 their misfortune that in their days St. John's Wood 

 was unknown, and agapemones were unbuilt. It is 

 therefore no wonder that those of the present more 

 lucky generation, with unlimited capital at their dis- 

 posal, should seek to recruit their health, and re- 

 invigorate their mind, almost, if not actually, demented 

 by ceaseless overwork, by taking every opportunity to 

 visit, unencumbered by the possibly tiresome presence 

 of their family, their marine or other residences. For 

 so commendable a purpose., surely it is better to seek 

 health in inhaling the salubrious air of your own 

 coasts in your own or a hired pleasure-yacht, than 

 seek it in foreign climes after painful voyages ! At 

 least in so doing they properly receive the tacit 

 sanction of their employers, who from their own 

 experiences can appreciate so laudable and self- 

 sacrificing; an effort to secure so needful an aim. 

 Shooting, again, is a manly and invigorating sport, 

 having many votaries; and a few weeks spent on the 



