RAMBLES ABOUT NEWMARKET 215 



the Thetford road, past the first milestone, hard 

 by the old toll-house at the junction of the 

 Thetford and Bury roads, to where the second 

 ought to be, you will come to a ''remains" in 

 place of the complete article. The stone post 

 stands all right, but the iron plate with the 

 numbering and lettering has been smashed. 

 Whatever satisfaction do vandals or boys (a boy 

 is not anything at all till he grows out of being a 

 boy, so vandals or boys is correct enough), derive 

 from perpetrating such outrages ? I never can 

 make out. One can understand the hackney 

 drivers in the Derbyshire Peak district defacing 

 the milestones, because by so doing they prevent 

 travellers from telling what distance is driven ; 

 but doing the harm simply for deviltry is almost 

 unaccountable. Still, perhaps we ought not to 

 talk too much on this head, we old 'uns. Not 

 ten minutes ago, wrenching off knockers and bell- 

 pulls (even doctors', who ought to be safe) and 

 smashing street lamps was considered high old 

 sport, so the other form of annoyance is not 

 so very unaccountable after all. I wish it was 

 far rarer. 



Some uncertainty exists as to the one mile 

 downhill at Newmarket, which Bill Lang, the two 

 miles record holder (recently attacked, I mean on 

 his figures), a lovely mover indeed, ran in 4 min. 

 and some seconds. One is, perhaps, apt to lay 

 too much stress on early fancies. To say that 

 praising old times is natural, covers a very obvious 

 truth — ^viz., the likelihood of your ranking 

 highest what you saw of excellence when you, the 

 critic, were young, full of enthusiasm, less inclined 

 to search for faults, and far more prone to become 

 a partisan than you are after long years of experi- 



