46 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



of going in summer one wants for swell flat- 

 racers unless you are favoured with plenty of 

 rain or a succession of heavy dews. What you 

 can do on the downs near the sea if you turn out 

 with your horses very early — which is to say, 

 before the dew, mostly from the sea, has eva- 

 porated — is surprising. All the same, I cannot 

 see an experienced trainer taking a Derby horse 

 there. 



A goodish while ago, but not so very long — 

 it was just when my old friend Mr Gubbins 

 had taken possession, with Vasey for trainer, 

 and there was a good deal of unreadiness about 

 the place — I walked over there from Brighton on 

 a day after the corresponding Plumpton meeting 

 to this just held. I shall never forget the impres- 

 sion the menagerie gave me. There were self 

 and a 'Varsity steeplechase winner, his brother, 

 and a fourth. We arrived at two in the after- 

 noon, just looked round, and came away again 

 in about an hour. All we saw of the horses was 

 old Spahi, with a leg about the same size as his 

 barrel, some more 'chasers up to very little, and 

 a little string of yearlings — to be two-year-olds 

 in a few days. Now, such a collection does not 

 afford much scope for '' brussling," does it ? One 

 of the young 'uns was brought out by itself on 

 account of being bad mannered, and, in hope of 

 its becoming more tractable, was sent over to 

 Telscombe for the mail. You have to go three 

 miles from Telscombe to buy a glass of beer, 

 you know ; and Rodmell, its post town, is about 

 as big as Bolt-court, Fleet-street, throwing in 

 the little pub. of the village, celebrated in a former 

 landlord's time for home-made hop-bitters, its 

 windmill, the stock-in-trade of a dealer in appar- 



