98 Life and Times of " The Druid" 



It will be readily believed that "The 

 Druid's " residence at Doncaster and the 

 atmosphere of horse-racing in the midst of 

 which he lived, were eminently calculated 

 to develop and increase the taste for the 

 Turf which, as I have said, must have been 

 born in him as a natural instinct. To use 

 his own words, it was at Doncaster that 

 "he was bitten by the tarantula of horse- 

 racing " ; that he found constant opportunities 

 of making acquaintance, not only with trainers 

 and jockeys, but also with those gnarled and 

 rugged bits of horsey character with which 

 Yorkshire and its race-courses abounded 

 about that period, and which the all-assimi- 

 lating railway has now destroyed. Messrs. 

 Baxter, the Solicitors to whom he w T as arti- 

 cled, were bigoted Tories, and the whole of 

 Henry Dixon's political pre-possessions were 

 of a Liberal type. There was in "The 

 Druid's" surroundings every conceivable 

 stimulant calculated to whet his appetite 

 for assuming the role of a sporting writer; 

 and no better opportunity than the present 

 will be found to say a few words about 

 "Martingale," who became "The Druid's" 



