C6 The Pride of Our Village. 



Barring treachery from within, which was very unlikely, 

 that horse was safe from the touts — though once we thought 

 that we were clone. It happened thus. The old parson 

 Avas ill, and the clergy of the neighbouring cathedral town 

 being in " full blast," as the manufacturers say, owing to 

 some grand Church week, a stranger came from London 

 for two or three Sundays. He was a curious kind of man, 

 and not much like a parson in manners or carriage. People 

 were civil to him, of course, and he had the natural 

 curiosity which most of the parish had about our favourite. 

 Coming out of church one Sunday, the wife of the noble 

 owner was talking about some suspicious people having been 

 seen about the woods, and a sudden idea occurred to me 



which nearly paralyzed her : " Lady ," 1 said, ^' I have 



it ! that new parson is a Newmarket tout as sure as we are 

 born ! " The idea was almost too horrible to think of. 



A young lady who was staying at the Vicarage, after 

 having been sworn to secrecy by every oath which would be 

 likely to stop a woman's tongue, was allowed to accompany 

 me to see the favourite gallop ; and although she w^as 

 particular, as a rule, about catching cold, and damp fee, 

 she cheerfully walked through the long wet grass to a hill 

 side in the park, in such a storm as I never saw excej^t in the 

 "Witches' scene in " Macbeth." 



The favourite had his hood on — and he carried, as I 

 thought, but I did not inquire, of course, a much heavier 

 weight than the Derby regulation weight, and was led by a 

 powerful mare ridden by a feather-weight boy who looked 

 like a squirrel on an oak-tree ; but despite the weather, 

 which w^as tremendous, the horse came along with a mag- 

 nificent stride, at a pace which seemed to me quite equal to 

 Derby speed, and pulled up after his mile and a quartei- 

 perfectly fresh. 



Everything seemed to prosper : the jockey who was to 



