Cambridge Days. 101 



hand. In dealing with current racing topics 

 he was far too discursive, and pitched his 

 key-note so high that matter-of-fact readers 

 grumbled after wandering through a laby- 

 rinth of fine words to find hardly one grain 

 of fact. His strength lay in his ' Turf Char- 

 acters,' and in his recollections of the Don- 

 caster of the past. If he was not in the 

 Doncaster Gazette office, hard at work upon 

 his beautifully small and neat manuscript, 

 or in a chancel seat of the old church, or in 

 Edlington, or Wheatley, or Sprotborough 

 Woods, the Town Moor was a sure find for 

 him, and he was pretty certain to be talking 

 to himself. He generally stationed himself 

 upon the St. Leger Day somewhere between 

 the Red House and the hill to catch the first 

 symptoms of the 'pace complaint.' St. Leger 

 after St. Leger was a scene he could unfold 

 with a master's hand. Every little incident 

 from the Duke of Hamilton's day had been 

 treasured and invested with significance, and 

 as John Jackson, the celebrated jockey, 

 lodged with him for a series of years, he 

 had a chance of posting himself up, which 

 he took care to use to the full." 



