2i8 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



particularly entertaining. ' The Captain,' I remember, said a 

 very characteristic thing the day he came down. I said that 

 I "was disinclined to ask So-and-So's advice. ' Oh ! ' he said, 

 ' I should ; I always ask for advice. One need never take it.' 



From time to time great fault is found with the state of 

 the course at the time of the meeting, and I should like to 

 say a word or two here about the difficulties which have to 

 be met. 



The soil is sand and gravel ; rain silts away through it like 

 a filter. Thus racing Ascot is in constant jeopardy from the 

 dryness and the drying qualities which are the boast of 

 residential Ascot. Only the deep-rooted grasses can with- 

 stand the zest of a spring sun, its escort of parching easterly 

 winds, the dewless nights, the spiteful frosts, and the un- 

 handsome pranks, from a farmer's point of view, our climate 

 often plays upon us in April and May. Ascot Heath has 

 no natural advantages but beauty. The course is regene- 

 rated common land, and the grass, and especially the New 

 Mile, is peevish haggard stuff and hardly honest. No better 

 illustration can be given of its hostility to the best inten- 

 tions than the fact that sheep have been tried both on the 

 course and on the lawns, but owing to thinness of the 

 turf soil and the dry and thirsty subsoil, they did so little 

 good and stained the land so unbecomingly that much had 

 to be re-turfed. The fact is that unless you have a wet 

 spring you cannot expect a really good course, and April 

 and May are critical and anxious months for Major Clement, 

 who for many years past has spared himself no trouble to 

 make each Ascot meeting better and more convenient than 

 its immediate predecessor. He watches the weather with the 

 strained attention of the prophet Elijah. But Major Clement 

 is only an experienced and faithful steward of the many 

 things committed to his charge ; he is not, as some of the 



