MORE RACING i8i 



I tliink Fred Webb was the most graceful of 

 flat-race riders I have ever seen, and the late Major 

 Roddy Owen the best and most graceful amateur 

 or professional who rode over fences. Speaking 

 of Fred Webb, it may be remembered by some 

 that once he had a mount in the Grand National ; 

 singularly enough, it was on the above-mentioned 

 horse, The Scot, three years before Jack Jones 

 failed to win on him in 1884. That year he fell, 

 but he gave Webb a beautiful ride, and if memory 

 serves me correctly he finished close up to Tommy 

 Beasley on Woodbrook, Jewitt on Regal and Dick 

 Marsh on Thornfield, who finished in the order 

 named. The Scot, a high-bred horse and a top- 

 priced yearling by Blair Athol out of Coimbra, was 

 in 1 88 1 the property of Mr J. B. Leigh. 



It was at the end of 1879 that we embarked at 

 Bombay for England. After a ten years' sojourn 

 in India a regiment is apt to get a little rusty ; 

 so we went to Aldershot, the centre of military 

 efficiency, to brush away the cobwebs of an easy 

 time abroad. The steeplechase course at Aldershot, 

 with plenty of gradients and well-constructed fences, 

 was then a really good one on which to test a 

 hunter. In those days at Balls Hill we finished in 

 the bottom and not at the top, as is now the case. 

 The alterations there were splendidly carried out 

 and the terraces on the mount are much appreciated 



