1 78 MEN OF MY TIME 



portant that their names should be set down. It must 

 suffice to say that on this occasion the mare did win, 

 after running a dead-heat. I should add that my cousin 

 was, I think, the laziest man I ever saw. He was almost 

 too lazy to eat and drink, and died when quite a young 

 man, though not from want of sustenance. In fact, he 

 was just the opposite to the industrious American who, 

 we are told, ran so fast that he overtook his own shadow. 

 Sir John Mills suffered martyrdom from the gout, 

 occasioned partly, no doubt, by his own indiscretion. 

 He was fond of fishing, and an excellent fisherman, 

 and after every attack of his old enemy, he would, as 

 soon as he was a little better, with the assistance of a 

 stick or an attendant, hobble into the meadow through 

 which the river Test runs, near to the Abbey, where 

 mostly he caught besides fish a cold, and the gout 

 to follow, which used to lay him up again for months. 

 And I suspect, too, that he was fond of good living, 

 which helped to feed the gout as well as himself. When 

 he came to the races, or in fact to Danebury to see 

 his horses, he came in a carriage with four horses, with 

 two postilions and two outriders, all dressed in livery 

 blue, red cuffs and collar ; and though he could scarcely 

 step out of his carriage, he would set the gout at defiance, 

 and have some champagne if nothing else. He had a 

 narrow escape of being thrown out in the yard one day 

 after the races. The postilions, who had refreshed 

 themselves liberally, in their haste to enter the yard 

 drove against the gate-post with great violence, but 

 beyond a severe shaking, happily it did him no 

 harm. 



He had running, about this time and later, Cerva, Bar 

 One, Cymba which he bought of Harry Hill after the 

 Oaks), Volunteer, Giantess, Miss Elis, Pugilist, Margaret 



