NEWMARKET REMINISCENCES 189 



caprices, or created in other ways. Only one of 

 these alleged explanations of its making is, I 

 hold, not acceptable — viz., that golf flourished 

 in a period far more ancient than any Royal 

 Society dreamed of in connection with the game, 

 and there being giants in the land, the Ditch was 

 planned and executed for a bunker suitable to 

 the clubs and clubbists of the period. Anyway, 

 a bit more of the long-lined mound is being 

 removed, and the corresponding section of dug- 

 out trench filled up so as to clear off some of the 

 corner which interferes with the easy progress of 

 horses started on the far side of the Jockey 

 Club's holding, and I should guess that the track 

 will be improved in consequence. What anti- 

 quarian societies will say, goodness only knows. 

 Perhaps they had better hold their peace, for the 

 club is autocratic, and protestants can easily be 

 turned into martyrs, especially where graves are, 

 so to speak, already dug waiting to be filled up 

 with material stored to hand. You could put 

 away a lot of learned authorities in the Ditch, 

 and ensure their ceasing from troubling by piling 

 chalk off" it over their corpses. Interesting it is 

 to look over the new scars in the aged monument 

 and note how little in all the centuries the particles 

 of chalk in various sizes and weights have shaken 

 down towards consolidation. You could scarcely 

 believe in sufficient force being used to heap it 

 up so as to remain where it was shot, even if the 

 old 'uns understood barrows, running planks, 

 tipping, and such details of navvy ing. How 

 could the material be so loosely disposed, or 

 stand trampling, if the barrier was used for 

 watching and fighting purposes ? Loose it is, 

 and one-fourth of the bulk, I should say, consists 



