NEWMARKET REMINISCENCES 185 



kindness shown me by a Colonial Jockey Club. 

 I offered to send them out — free, of course, of all 

 expenses — a very historical starting-post, and 

 expected to receive a reply urging me to make 

 sure of getting the article packed up and on 

 board ship as soon as possible. How I was to 

 come by the article I will not say here, except 

 that a friend in office was to be judiciously 

 oblivious of what was going to be done, and that 

 the scheme for this household word's removal on 

 a dark, moonless night was all laid out. Mind, 

 it was to be treated with every proper respect, 

 and, after its emigration, set up in a place of 

 great honour, to make a link carrying racing 

 men's thoughts many thousand miles across the 

 seas to the Old Country, and in the new land of 

 ours keep green memories of mighty horses who 

 had run in the greatest of all our contests from 

 a date not less than a century old. *' Instead of 

 which," the reply was that, in effect, all concerned 

 did not care the price of firewood about the post, 

 being, in short, the lot of them, just so many 

 Colonial Peter Bells. 



Seriously, I do think that as regards the Red 

 Post or a similar monument, remains, or trophy, 

 the Powers might have felt for it more pro- 

 prietorial respect than to allow of its being 

 presented to, or appropriated by, any individual ; 

 and I am quite certain that wiping out the 

 sentimental side — which, mark you, includes a 

 good deal of the enthusiasm that should form 

 the basis of true sport — is a mistake. We do 

 not want, it is not good for pastime's estate, to 

 have everything measured by a pounds, shillings, 

 and pence standard, or disposed so that directly 

 its value for active purposes passes it shall be in 



