240 A TRIAL FOR MR. MERRY 



CHAPTER XIV. 



A TRIAL FOR MR. MERRY. 



Ftry Hobbie Noble for the Cambridgeshire Difference of opinion as 

 to weights Results Why he beat Joe Miller Treatment before 

 the race How it was lobt Another trial ; Weathergage for the 

 Cesarewitch A difference of opinion as to distance Something 

 about Mr. Merry and his satellites His success at cocking An old 

 cockpit Regret on his leaving the turf Buchanan and ' Tasa ' 

 Parker Characteristics and associations Buchanan's betting 

 Loses himself in a lawsuit against his employer Different ending of 

 the two men A doubtful gift ' Betting on a certainty ;' but the 

 biter bit. 



I MENTIONED in the last chapter that at one time I was 

 able to be of some service to Mr. Merry. I have had to 

 do with this good sportsman in his direct connection with 

 my stable in the case of Lord of the Isles, and I may now 

 perhaps not unfittingly describe this trial of another of his 

 horses, and the result of the race that followed it. Joe 

 Miller had followed up his success in beating forty-two 

 horses in the Chester Cup by winning the Emperor's 

 Vase (Ascot Cup), beating in it Hobbie Noble for which 

 Mr. Merry had given as a two-year-old, the previous 

 year, the large sum of 6,000 to (the then) Lord John 

 Scott besides Voltigeur, and most of the best horses of 

 the day. Meeting Mr. Merry at Newmarket, he asked 

 me if I would try Hobbie Noble for the Cambridgeshire, 

 to which, of course, I readily assented. 



' I will,' he said, ' send Saunders and Mr. Buchanan to 

 your place with the horse, and I wish you to try him as 

 you would try one of your own that you thought good 

 enough to win such a race ; and/ he added, ' I have Mr. 

 Parker's authority for saying you can take Joe Miller, or 

 any other horse of his, for the purpose,' 



