DONCASTER 229 



from a byroad in cutting round the curve shut 

 off by a hedge from view of what might be going 

 on ahead. Can't we pass a law making car- 

 owners provide a sort of wire fund to pay for the 

 expense of removing hedges and other sight- 

 handicapping boundaries from corner plots and 

 substituting iron or other railings penetrable by 

 the human optic's range ? Thank goodness, 

 motors cannot vex down by the Don, nor on the 

 course itself. 



When I used to do Doncaster from outside — 

 going into the town in the mornings and out 

 again at nights — I did Doncaster great injustice, 

 because I gathered my idea of its country from 

 the low black peaty land you go through ap- 

 proaching the town from London by rail. That 

 sort of territory is plain enough even to ugliness. 

 But you mustn't judge the place by this sample 

 any more than you should gauge its everyday 

 life and aspect by the race-time performances. 

 Out of these it is a remarkably quiet sort of 

 country town, as these go in the North^ — you 

 scarcely expect the picturesqueness of the South 

 — and out of Doncaster you can find very pretty 

 country indeed, say you know where to look 

 for the same. Working up towards Shef- 

 field on the canal and river is some charming 

 scenery, which would be vastly improved if you 

 could only so much as make believe that the 

 poor waterways were not more filth than any- 

 thing else. 



Justice must be done, whether the ceiling falls 

 in or not, and as to the alleged local smell, I am 

 bound to say that I believe the horse traffic was 

 often accountable for it. This being thus, I 

 wonder rather that the committee whose duty it 



