Excerpt from Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Vol. 34

But the parade is dismissed to 'stables, ' and while the attendant sprites are busy sponging and drying and brushing, and executing all manner of diamond and other devices on the lustrous quarters of their charges (in true Whitewall fashion), let us accept the invitation given for half an hour's rest and chat in the snug parlour, from the walls of which look down many mementoes of past grand masters of Russley, tokens of high appreciation for zealous services rendered to former employers, and more than one trophy inscribed with names of warrior steeds and their deeds imperishably blazoned in the archives of the famous Berkshire stable. Likenesses of Lord and Lady Stamford suggest pleasing recollections of days of youthful service Spent beneath the blue-and-black banner of Enville the late owner of Doncaster and Marie Stuart smiles grim but satisfied approval from his frame by the fireplace, and a new and prosperous era in the fortunes of the house is marked by portraits Of the Duke and Earl now masters of its destinies, the latter well matched by a face and figure familiar to followers of 'the Baron' in the palmy days Of the blue-and-yellow of Mentmore. And Of what is our talk during the half-hour sacred to mysterious rites Of stable preparation preluding a second inspection of its contents, but of 'racing past and future - the latter subject diplomatically approached and deli cately handled - Of breeding and feeding the rising generation of aspirants to racing fame, of the teachings Of old experience in stable management and training economy, and Of the multitudinous topics which the atmosphere of the place suggests. Sporting novelists and dramatic delineators have represented the trainer as a cross between Mephistopheles and Sapphira; but here everything tends to dispel the vulgar illusion, so courteously are we encouraged to satisfy' the curiosity naturally engendered by a visit to the most famous of training quarters, a veritable Whitewall Of the South, and representative establishment of its kind in England.

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