Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter xvii. Am invited to lay out a Racecourse in Hamilton Park--Mr. D. and the Duke of Portland (?)--Horses with One-sided Mouths--My Opinion of the Cause--Different Methods of Treatment--Cruel Practice of many Veterinary Surgeons--Professor Loffler's method Exemplified--An Account of the way the Operation of Filing the Teeth is carried out--Jockeys and Stable-lads at Newmarket--The Stablemen's Institute--Absurd Prejudices of some Trainers--My Efforts to obtain Subscriptions--Land Presented by Lady Wallace--A Word about the Rous Hospital and Almshouses--The Sources from which their Cost is Defrayed--Nothing of the Kind to assist the Institute--Description of the Building and its Object. It was in the year 1887, I was asked by some sportsmen in Glasgow to lay out a racecourse and organise a race-meeting in Hamilton Palace Park, which is about ten miles by road or rail, from that large and commercially rich city on the Clyde. The promoters had obtained leave to fence off part of the fine park--out of sight of the Palace--and lease it for sporting purposes; and a better situation for a racecourse could hardly be conceived--fine old turf requiring very little levelling, with a straight run in of five furlongs. The course was one mile in circumference, the Park being bounded on one side by the Clyde, and on the other by a substantial high wall. The good Duke gave me permission to put up at the Palace, perhaps the finest structure of its kind in Great Britain, where a dear old housekeeper, who was as clever a cook as one need wish to see, was always pleased to make one comfortable. Within a radius of ten miles there is a population of one million, and one would have thought that the venture would have drawn vast crowds of sportsmen eager to...