A VISIT TO DAWSON'S STABLES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1892, 15 May 1890, Page 27

A VISIT TO DAWSON'S STABLES.

(By an Australian, in Town and Country Journal.)

It is the stables and their equine occupants we are most interested in, and thither we repair without much delay. Noon has passed half an hour or so, and the horses in work have just been brought in from their exercise — not a very favourable time to see them to best advantage, but still a good time to judge of the forwardness or otherwise of their condition. We are at once struck by the very substantial and handsome external appearance of this great equine boarding and lodging house, and, in fact, of the whole surroundings. The main front stable buildings form an angle of a quadrangle, the third side of which is made up by the high wall which joins the rear of the dwelling house. The ground space within is neatly tiled for a considerable width skirting the stables; then comes a broad gravelled walk or carriage drive, and beyond that the broad space is given to a large and newly-formed lawn and flowering beds. The stable buildings are long and narrow, the width of a wide single stall, and having an upper floor devoted to the housing of the numerous staff of boys and assistants, and the storing of fodder and the usual garniture attached to a racing establishment. A handsomely constructed door with patent brass fastenings marks the box (or apartment it would ba more proper to say) of the fortunate quadruped securely and comfortably housed within, and really the impression which is likely to strike the mind, on seeing the surroundings for the first time, is that it would be more i" accordance with the fitness of things, if instead of the stable boy, who goes ahead to draw back the bolts, and who has just dropped his rake, and bis cloths and bucket, there should be a trim chambermaid cheerfully going her rounds, and a mat at the door, and an othodox pair ot boots reposing on them, the property of some late slumberer, perfectly satisfied with the comfort of his quarters. Each door is marked in gilt, with numerals from one upward. We pass 1, 2, and 3, and stop at No. 4. The door opens inward, and we enter the apartments of a hand-some-looking chestnut. No occasion to ask his name. There it is above his head in gilt lettering on a black ground, against the patent glazed white tiles with which the wall is lined or paved, and we read it with the delight which rational feeling and old associations with his illustrious relations has engendered —