NEWMARKET REMINISCENCES 199 



paid better than telegrams, and accordingly con- 

 fectionery customers were given precedence. Let 

 even a kiddy come in for a stale halfpenny bun, 

 and the counting of your telegram was suspended 

 automatically. An old lady who wanted her 

 savings-bank book audited would lose you the 

 first edition of the evening papers for sure. And 

 when you had lodged your batch, and settled up, 

 you hadn't got them half off, because, despite 

 furious remonstrance made to the head office, the 

 Terror in charge made it a rule to let the things 

 accumulate till there w^as enough work to be 

 worth while attending to in a lump. Further, as 

 a matter of tidiness, she used to plant the forms 

 face upwards as they were taken in — a scheme 

 that ensured the earliest deposited going away 

 last of all. That, I remember, was done else- 

 where, at West Brompton, on the day that 

 George beat Cummings at Lillie Bridge, and 

 ran his mile in 4 min. I2f sec. I played every 

 conceivable dodge for getting the result into the 

 office first, and did so within seconds of the 

 finish. Three hours later my message dribbled 

 through, sent ofi" last of a pile a foot high. 



I think, without wishing to crack ourselves 

 up unduly, we, the English people may consider 

 that a grand object-lesson to foreigners was pre- 

 sented in the way His Majesty, when Prince of 

 Wales, was able to amuse himself, joining in the 

 national sport in its headquarters free from any 

 restraint or apparent consideration for personal 

 safety and such embarrassment as is carried by 

 inconvenient attention or misplaced manifestation 

 of loyalty. Everybody would be aware that 

 measures always were taken to guard against 

 danger to the Heir Apparent from fanatics or 



