CHAPTER XXII 



ASCOT AND NEWBURY 



"Aristocratic Ascot" was a line we used to 

 see on the sporting papers' contents bills. 

 ''Indents," ''cross-heads," and the like were not 

 then in use as finger-posts to guide the reading 

 traveller to different stations on his journey- 

 through the long columns ; and if you wanted 

 to know what was being written about, you had 

 to wade through the lot or on towards that way, 

 or refer to the "bill." "Aristocratic Ascot" the 

 late Mr Henry Feist (Hotspur II., his brother 

 was the first) christened the Royal meeting, 

 partly out of desire to achieve alliteration, also 

 because of truthful aptness which was not quite 

 so discoverable in 'Appy 'Ampton or Glorious 

 Goodwood — two other little bits of nomenclature 

 for which Mr Feist was, I believe, responsible. 

 Curiously enough, the first is a singularly smart 

 bit of naming, for while what is, or passes for, 

 aristocratic certainly gives the racing a tone, 

 that same is the note of the neighbourhood, the 

 one the locality desires to strike and impress on 

 you. To take the village — "city and suburbs," 

 the people of the country call it — as its denizens 

 desire the place should be taken, you must not go 



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