I 



LAST YEARS AT KINGSCLERE 443 



as a trainer merely provided sufficient to live 

 upon. There was no surplus to put in the bank. 

 Any money I have saved has come to me in the 

 form of presents from my patrons and as the 

 result of fortunate speculations in bloodstock. If 

 I had been a betting man I might, perhaps, have 

 acquired wealth. On the other hand, I might 

 not 1 Betting never appealed to me. 



The Kingsclere Syndicate, as constituted in 

 1903, was broken up. Mr. Gretton and I sold our 

 shares to the Dukes of Portland and Westminster, 

 who appointed William Waugh my successor. 



Naturally, I experienced a pang of regret 

 when the day arrived on which I quitted Park 

 House, with the inception and development of 

 which I had been so closely associated. Apart 

 from the wrench of leaving the home invested 

 with so many happy and tender memories, there 

 was the parting with the Kingsclere friends with 

 whom I had lived and worked for the social and 

 material welfare of the village. The separation 

 was not, however, then to be as pronounced as 

 it afterwards became, for I bought a property 

 called Strattons, two miles or so along the road 

 to Newbury. There I had some paddocks in 

 which I was able to keep two or three brood 

 mares, and these, together with other interests, 

 kept me active. 



A scheme over which I had long pondered 

 now began to assume more definite shape — that 



