The Life of a Great Sportsman 



or less injury from their exertions in a performance which can 

 only be likened to that one would expect to meet with at a 

 horse show or a circus. 



An Amusing Experience 



In the early spring of 1872 Mr. Richardson received a 

 letter from his old friend Mr. Ned Maxwell — afterwards Sir 

 Edward Heron-Maxwell — stating that he had entered a big — 

 very big — and long chestnut horse, named Reviriscat, of whom 

 he had formed great expectations, in the Hunt Steeplechase 

 at Lincoln, and would take it as a great favour if he would 

 ride him, a request which the " Cat " readily complied with. 



Having duly weighed out for the race above-mentioned, 

 Mr. Richardson made for the saddling paddock, and there 

 found — to quote his own words — <( the biggest horse I ever 

 set eyes on, with the smallest bridle, a tiny snaffle, with the 

 thinnest rein possible to conceive, purchased in the town — at 

 a toyshop I should imagine — that very morning by Ned Max- 

 well's old Scotch groom, because, so he informed me, he 

 ' thought it looked like racing! " 



"Just imagine my feelings," went on Mr. Richardson, "on 

 beholding this enormous horse, quite seventeen hands high, with 

 a one-rein pony snaffle on him and nothing else, to ride over a 

 course made up of ridge and furrow, small fields and trappy 

 fences, with ditches on the take-off side destitute of guard rails, 

 with a narrow road to cross — altogether a very difficult country 

 to negotiate, in fact. A goodish-looking mare named Susan, 

 who had previously won several races, with Tom Spence in the 

 saddle, was made favourite, the race, according to all accounts, 

 being reckoned a good thing for her. 



" At all events, she compared very favourably with my own 

 mount, whose underbred and elephantine appearance so struck 



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