CHAPTER XIV 



NEWMARKET REMINISCENCES 



How long ago is it since, by an act altogether 

 unjustifiable legally, so say the Newmarket 

 protestants, the Red Post was moved ? Now 

 anger has subsided and sorrow supervened, I can 

 forgive but never shall forget the crime — a sort 

 of licensed body-snatching. With Jockey Club's 

 rights and Newmarket town's privileges, alienation 

 of property, or conservation thereof, maintenance 

 or denial of claim to free use and passage on the 

 Heath for the general public or locally qualified, 

 and destruction of these assets, I have nothing to 

 say just now, except that, as a rule, big people's 

 improvements such as have led to a considerable 

 bobbery in and about the little town, almost 

 invariably end in exclusiveness, as regards posses- 

 sion, being extended for the great to the little 

 ones' cost. My concern is not with alleged 

 extinguishing of metalled roads and footpaths, or 

 enclosures where all was open ; not even with the 

 blotting out of a largish area from the Top of the 

 Town to the Turn of the Lands as a raceground 

 dedicated to the Newmarket people. Much 

 grievance has been felt and expressed on these 

 several heads, and I am glad to find some being 

 relieved. Mine is not a protest with solely 



