X. PREFACE. 



IV. — "The Druid's " equal in endurance of hard- 

 ship, exposure to weather, scanty fare and personal 

 discomfort, and the courage with which he faced 

 and disregarded them all, and never flinched even 

 when suffering from painful sickness and exhausting 

 disease, is not to be found among writers for the 

 Press, dead or living. Many years ago I received 

 a letter from Dr. Bradley, now Dean of West- 

 minster. Dr. Bradley was at Rugby and in the 

 same house with " The Druid," who visited his old 

 school-fellow, then Head Master of Marlborough, 

 under the following circumstances. At the time 

 of which I am now speaking there was no railway 

 to Marlborough, and the nearest station was 

 Swindon Junction upon the Great Western Rail- 

 way, distant about thirteen miles from Marl- 

 borough. One summer afternoon there appeared 

 at Dr. Bradley's door a travel-stained pedestrian 

 with a huge portmanteau on his shoulder, which 

 he had carried all the way from Swindon to 

 Marlborough across the Wiltshire Downs. It 

 proved to be " The Druid," who had made his way 

 on foot to Marlborough in order to inspect the 

 racing establishments in the neighbourhood — that 

 of Alec Taylor at Fyfield, where Sir Joseph 

 Hawley's horses were then trained; that of Jo nes, 

 Alec Taylor's nearest neighbour, from which Marl- 

 borough Buck went forth to run second to 

 Teddington for the Derby of 1S51 ; and that of 



