272 TRAINERS AND JOCKEYS 



next morning to themselves. By the institution of the 

 fashionable late dinner they wisely get through two 

 hours or so pleasantly, and yet more agreeably make 

 the remainder pass away without weariness in some con- 

 vivial party, which breaks up at three o'clock in the 

 morning, when all seek in calmness the allotted hours 

 of repose. We hear of no dissipation, no cards or dice, 

 no night-brawlers disturbing the peace of their neigh- 

 bours, no licentious revelry, nor mixture of the sexes at 

 improper times or places, no ribald jesting, and, above 

 all, no fighting over a misapplied word or ambiguous 

 sentence uttered in an amusing strain of exuberant con- 

 viviality. 



If one proof were asked of me to show the obvious 

 intuitive knowledge and superior wisdom of our present 

 race of riders, the following incident will clinch the 

 question. I have before mentioned that trainers are 

 often disappointed, and even dissatisfied (though it is 

 not politic to show it to their jockeys), at the running of 

 their horses in public. For this no reason can be as- 

 signed. All sorts of excuses have been formed, such as 

 the want of skill on the part of the jockey, though not 

 substantiated a difficult thing at all times to do ; the 

 state of the ground ; the inequalities of the course ; or 

 the unsuitable distance the horse has had to run. But 

 all to no purpose, till a youthful rider, like another 

 Alexander, ' cut the Gordian knot ' by saying, quite un- 

 offensively and without the least hesitation, to the 

 trainer, an old man : 



' He is not fit, sir ; but when he is, he will win you a 

 good race.' 



Unfortunately, he did not say if the horse was too big 

 or too light, that it might in its future preparation be 

 put right. Therefore the tedious difficulty had to be 



