188 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



fancy capping the stable-boys and the broken- 

 down old sportsmen — once celebrities, maybe — 

 who go so far towards making up the crowd 

 **over the way" at Newmaket ! Only think 

 what you are councilling the Club to do, and if 

 your kind heart does not make you sorry you 

 spoke, I am a Dutchman of the Cape brand. 

 Just you run through the list of has-beens whom 

 you know personally, and think to yourself what 

 you might have done for those who cannot now 

 afford to pay to see the game played at which 

 they were once proficient, and who will be broken- 

 hearted if obliged to stay away, thanks to the 

 bar you talked of putting up. 



If you ask me how the Club might ensure a 

 better revenue, I should say by reducing their 

 fees rather than by sticking them on, and by 

 inducing the Great Eastern Railway Company 

 to accelerate their service. If the old line^ — from 

 Chesterford to Six- Mile Bottom, I believe it 

 was — was in existence now, and specials run to 

 do the journey in an hour and a bit — not as big 

 a bit as the hour — and the fines on the course 

 were lowered, the turnover must be much greater. 

 At least, so I believe, and I know that Kitty, 

 which her proper name is Exes, is killing racing 

 for many, at any rate, knocking out half the 

 regulars. Most of the charges are unreasonably 

 dear. 



The Newmarket Ditch, locally known as 

 Choke Jade, on the edge of the Cesarewitch 

 course cuts across the opening cleared in the 

 great artificial earthwork and rampart, which 

 may be a Fosse cum vallum of Roman origin or 

 due to their predecessors, for military purposes 

 of defence and offence, the Devil's dodges or 



