1855] ME. WILLIAM GULLIVER. 227 



few cottages on tlie roadside, wliicli form, tlie village of 

 Brougliton. Going down this incline he said : " Takes to 

 it well, don't she ? Has not done much this way 

 either, for she was running at Newmarket last week ! " 

 AVe got home all right, but I remember mentally noting 

 rather to walk home the six miles than ever again accept 

 W. Gr.'s road hospitality, particularly at night. 



Talking one day of cross-country exploits on wheels, he 

 told me that once when driving home, Billy Cowper, 

 who, I think, afterwards broke his neck riding, came 

 up alongside on a hunter. " He said his horse could 

 jump a bit. I said mine could trot better than most," 

 and a match for a sovereign was arranged then and 

 there. GruUiver w^as to keep the road, and Billy was 

 to ride the country, to a named point, where they 

 would meet again. Some distance had been covered, 

 when (xulliver saw that he would be beat, his only 

 chance being to cut a corner. " Hunting, I never knew 

 the mare I was driving turn her head, so I offered her a chance 

 on wheels, turned short over the fence, got over it with a 

 scramble, went on across the field, and blundered over the 

 fence into the road again, with nothing broke. Billy never 

 saw me, and in the end I just beat him, and took the pound." 



The late Lord Howth was often at Swalcliffe. I 

 believe it was when he and two others were once staying 

 with Gulliver that the latter drove them to Banbury 

 Station for Northampton races. That was when the line 

 was by Bletchley and Bl is worth, and long before it was 

 direct as at present. Gulliver put his load down at the 

 station and turned homewards, for he had not intended to 

 accompany them. Again, to use his own words, for I 

 remember these incidents well : "I had just got to the 

 bridge, when I thought, ' I'll race that train.' So I turned 

 down the Northampton Eoad instead of that to Swalcliffe. 

 I was driving an American trotter I had (a well-knowTi 

 harnesser that Gulliver used to call his " trotter," a black 

 horse), and I gave him his head. I got to Northampton, 

 and the horse did not appear winded even, drove straight 



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