424 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



rniles) in four hours and ten minutes ; number 

 of Horses unlimited, and the match to come 

 off on the 22d instant. 



Eleven Horses, the number which it was 

 proposed to employ in the match, were in the 

 course of a couple of days mustered by the 

 parties and their friends (who in the mean- 

 time had made an additional bet of fifteen 

 hundred rupees on the match being performed 

 in four hours), and were exercised every 

 morning on the race-course here for the short 

 time intervening between the making and 

 coming off of the match. 



The bafikers of Old Time were numerous, 

 and in f&ct the general opinion was that the 

 match would not be won : the grounds for 

 which were, that the roads were known to be 

 in a bad state ; that the Bore Ghaut, a steep 

 and winding descent of four miles, with a pre- 

 cipice on one side of the road, had to be 

 passed ; added to which was the probability, 

 nay almost certainty of obstruction from the 

 droves of bullocks carrying grain up the 

 country, with which the road is usually at 

 this season thronged. It was moreover sup- 

 posed that the Horses in training were by no 

 means equal to the performance, and that an 

 accident, of which there appeared more than 

 a probability, would infallibly lose the match. 



From the confidence of the parties them- 

 selves, however, the betting: at starting was 

 even on the match being performed in four 

 hours ten minutes : three to two agrainst four 

 hours ; three to one against three hours fifty 

 minutes ; and ten to one that it was not won 

 in three hours and thirty minutes. 



On the first making of the match two 

 watches on the chronooieter principle, which 

 had been selected for tlie occasion, had been 

 placed ill the hands of a watchmaker, and 



these having been set on the day preceding 

 the match, one was taken on in the mail to 

 Pauwell by the umpire, whilst the other was 

 reserved for the start at Poona. 



At a quarter past five o'clock in the morn- 

 ing of the 22d, Mr. Rawlinson, riding twelve 

 stone, appeared at the starting place ; and the 

 word " off" having been given, the match 

 commenced. 



Only one, and that not a very large drove 

 of bullocks, was met between Poona and 

 Rhandalla ; the distance forty-four miles, 

 having been performed in exactly two hours, 

 without any accident having occurred. Here 

 a violent Horse had been injudiciously sta- 

 tioned, and immediately on his being mounted, 

 the curb turned round in his mouth, and he 

 ran away with his rider the whole way down 

 the Ghaut ; but luckily was, after two o^ 

 three narrow escapes, pulled up safe at Kola- 

 poor. The last Horse, when within a couple 

 of miles of home, suddenly leapt off the road 

 into the fields, and alighting on bad ground, 

 fell. No injury, however, was sustained by 

 either horse or rider, who immediately re-' 

 mounted, and arrived in Aauwell at twenty- 

 eight minutes to nine o'^Rk, thus winning 

 the original match with fifty-three minutes to 

 spare. 



The Horse which ran between Wargaon 

 and Carii was the only one of those employed 

 in the match which had ever appeared on the 

 Turf 



The match was ridden with great nerve 

 and judgment throughout by Mr. Rawlinson 

 son of Mr. Rawlinson, of Chadlington, Ox- 

 fordshire. 



The Horses were Arabs belonging to the 

 Officers, and the match arose from some c-oa 

 versation on Mr. Osbaldeston's match- 



