CHAPTER XVII 



DONCASTER REMINISCENCES 



If you want to see life here on race mornings 

 — I do not mean such as is represented by stand- 

 ing round in a ring of fifty and sixty and betting 

 on pitch-and-toss, which are popular forms of 

 athletics (the standing, the betting, the pitching 

 and the tossing) on the Town Moor — let me 

 recommend the road to Rotherham and Sheffield, 

 and a study of the traps bowling along. Once I 

 took the trouble to go out and look at some of 

 the assembling, devoting myself to the Sheffield- 

 wey contingent, and to that end made out some 

 five miles of the eight towards Q)nisboro'. Not 

 at all a job I take to kindly is watching 

 streams of vehicles on the move, more especially 

 if they are coming towards me. I do not know 

 whether there is any personal peculiarity about 

 the sensation, but after keeping my eyes on a 

 long succession of carriages moving towards me 

 I find a sort of attraction in the Juggernaut line, 

 something like the pull a cliff" will give at your 

 feet to persuade them to take you over. More- 

 over, the vehicles appear as if they are leaving 

 the straight line and making for the side-walk. 

 Altogether, I dislike the business very much. 



234 



