PATCHING AND SELSEY 31 



fashion, retiring butlers and coachmen in the 

 local houses, the Ram at Angmering, and the 

 Horse and Groom aforesaid at Patching Pond. 

 I fancy Merry Monarch was the racehorse which 

 Herring painted in ''The Start for the Derby." 

 Moreover, it was a custom with local worthies of 

 this class to give their former dependents a turn 

 by making themselves customers, occasionally 

 calling with friends to partake of light refresh- 

 ment. Naturally, good stuff — frequently of the 

 patron's own selection or purchasing — was kept 

 in stock for occasions when the great folk looked 

 in, wine far above the character of the inn's 

 ordinary trade. Of course the day would come, 

 as it did with Mr Gratwicke, when patron and 

 client no longer were concerned in the drinking or 

 vending of good wine. (I saw Mr Gratwicke's 

 wine sold, as also the Merry Monarch picture, 

 so well known to most interested in racing, 

 though many are not aware whose year it com- 

 memorated, nor that the start was drawn from 

 behind, not in front, of Sherwood's, formerly Sir 

 Gilbert Heathcote's, cottage.) 



With the special customers dropping out, all 

 call for the good port, Madeira, brown sherry — 

 dry had not then been invented, I think — and 

 sound full-bodied claret ceased. After the land- 

 lord and his wife, maybe, had followed the old 

 master, these stores lost their identity. Scarcely 

 any wine trade attached to the premises. One 

 tenant after another would in succession have the 

 stock valued to him, taking it over as ''changes" 

 were worked, and there the stuff would lie in the 

 cellars unless somebody happened to call for a 

 bottle. Then wine almost unbuyable from 

 anyone who understood its value would, I regret 



