DONCASTER 225 



another ! That was only half high compared to 

 mine. Never, I believe, before or since has there 

 been such a volume as mine, and I can recollect 

 each individual bet. A fielder's business being 

 to lay against favourites, I began by backing 

 Lord Lyon. Then, to save that money, I laid 

 against Savernake to win and Rustic each way, 

 backed Lord Lyon for a place (Valentine and 

 Wright, now Topping and Spindler, sent me a 

 voucher for this like a dock warrant) and 

 Savernake i, 2, also backed Knight of the 

 Crescent i, 2, 3, and wound up by taking the 

 ridiculous odds of 25 to i that I placed the first, 

 second, and third — and performed that feat. 



Often I think about that precious book on 

 which I won every wager, and wonder what idea 

 I could have had of risks. Musing on the insane 

 successful speculation took me on Monday far 

 beyond the chain of those most countrified-named 

 once villages — Bethnal Green, Hackney Downs, 

 London Fields, and on by Lea Bridge, where I 

 shunted on the mental train to memories of days 

 in, on, and about the pleasant waters of the river 

 Lee, or Lea — It is spelt both way, though the 

 bells of Shandon do not sound so grand on this 

 '' L-double-e," or " L,e,e," as I believe one must 

 say now. Hackney Marshes appear to be turn- 

 ing themselves pretty much into waterworks now 

 — do they not ? — like all the Thames Valley on 

 both shores, Middlesex and Surrey, between 

 Hampton and Walton or Hanworth. Soon 

 there will be no room for the people who drink 

 the water, but that does not matter any more 

 than the disappearance of the marshes, once a 

 playground where one used to see all manner of 

 sport. 



p 



