WILTS AND HORSES 319 



every ten minutes to see how she got on, Hke a 

 youngster pulling up a plant by the roots to find 

 out whether it was sprouting or not. 



Some of our outlying trainers must at times 

 get to feel very much like the men in charge 

 of lightships. There they are, approachable 

 through a long, eye-tiring avenue of dust in the 

 summer. Little settlements clinging for dear life 

 to an almost perpetually wind-vexed anchorage 

 in winter, and, but for association of the establish- 

 ment's hands about the camp, solitary as shep- 

 herds out on the downs. But don't think that 

 if the master and staff are detached from the 

 world in voluntary exile they are lonely as the 

 word is frequently understood, because they are 

 not. For no one who has not tried the life a 

 little could realise what a precious lot there is to 

 do in never-ending work. By the time you have 

 left off at night the next day's work is almost 

 due to begin, and, as for accounts and corre- 

 spondence, I think the noble animal is more 

 provocative of these industries than any article 

 of his weight. His requirements, too, are 

 various, and you have never quite done with 

 him to the extent of being able to close the 

 letter-book or block of telegraph forms and 

 saying, '* Thank goodness, that is done with 

 now." Somehow or other, occasion will be 

 made for posting a boy off on a bicycle to cover 

 an item forgotten. Just sit down and make out 

 a map of the bother and fuss incidental to 

 getting a selling-plater off from one of these 

 hill stations to a racing place — say, Yarmouth 

 — the inquiries and answers, arrangements and 

 informations. No ; a trainer in charge of a 

 moderate string has his work cut out. 



