128 REMINISCENCES OF 



and said, " Give it to your men to drink ' Rainbow's' 

 health ". 



The year 1874 was an unfortunate year for the 

 horses. Wyndham Anstruther bought a very fine 

 bay horse in the Atherstone country and lent him to 

 me. I called him " Sirloin," as Wyndham was the 

 Hereditary Carver for Scotland. He was taken 

 ill after hunting at Lucklaw Hill and died. I sent 

 Wyndham a cheque, and he most handsomely returned 

 me half of it. 



One day I was riding a young mare which I 

 bought from Gow. I was galloping up a stony lane 

 at Chesters with the hounds all round me to gret to 

 a holloa, when down she blundered, up again and 

 staggered on, and then down again, with her head 

 doubled under her, and did not seem inclined to get 

 up again. The only thing that happened to me was 

 I bruised my big toe. The mare died a few days 

 afterwards of lock-jaw, and we discovered that she 

 had fractured her skull just above her eye. 



I bought a very useful mare from Tom Richmond. 

 She was sent out when not fit. When she got home 

 she beg^an bleeding at the nose and died. 



I saw a good-looking chestnut mare in a plough 

 and asked the farmer (Wilson of Mooredge) what he 

 had done with her. He said he had put her in a 

 doof-cart and she would not start. He said, " Ane o' 

 the twa will dee the nicht". When she started 

 " She flee'd like stour thundering terrible ". I bought 

 her and called her " Stour " — dtist. She was a very 

 good one and I sold her at Northampton. 



