The Pride of Our Village. 65 



Lord Clifden, which was the Derby favourite, and was trained for the 

 Derby, first at Godmersham, in Kent, of which parish my late 

 father was vicar. Some twelve or fifteen years after my father's 

 death, and long after Lord St. Vincent had left Godmersham, I received 

 a letter from him, asking me to come and bring one of my daughters 

 to his youngest daughter's wedding, in London, as he wished to 

 have a reminiscence cf "dear old Godmersham," as he called it. 

 We had lost sight of one another for year?, and I " countered" him 

 by writing a sketch of his former home, and of his favourite race- 

 horse, and got the printers of Baily to get me an advance copy a 

 day or two before publication, and sent it to him as a wedding 

 present. He told me that the story of the kitten was perfectly 

 accurate, and the moral of the story about squire and parson at the 

 end was quite true. The late George Fordham rode Lord Clifder, 

 which was beaten by Macaroni by a short half-head. Tambonr 

 Major made thirty-three (!) false starts. The judge put up the 

 number of the third horse wrong, and had to alter it. 



