8i 



*' competent critics " (copyright), and we have heard ev^ery- 

 thing there is to be heard in connection with it. The 

 beaten have been condoled with and the victorious congrat- 

 ulated ; we have carefully re-ridden every yard of the line, 

 re-jumped every fence, scratched our faces against the 

 same thorns, shorn all the shine off our boots at the same 

 time and re-delivered ourselves of that last effort in the 

 straight I What, therefore, can I tell you ? Would it 

 interest your readers to know how some of us W'ished we 

 had docked smoking earlier in our training, or been more 

 dilio;"ent with the dumb-bells before our mornino- tub? 

 How a bad flounder or a peck at the drop shook all the 

 wind we had remaining out of us, how he tore at his 

 bridle going at the big wall, and how we thanked our stars 

 that India had still left us nerve enough not to mind if he 

 had not measured that last stride right ? How we hugged 

 ourselves as he landed into the next field, and we looked 

 between his ears for the next one? I don't know. Your 

 sporting readers have perhaps felt all these sensations. 

 In a long gallop across country one gets a whole heap of 

 them, and it is a lesson in patience such as few other 

 things are or ever can be. Perhaps he's pulling our arms 

 out, and we feel he must know better than we can what 

 pace he ought to go ; perhaps we think the brown horse 

 in front of us is getting dangerously far away, and we 

 have to kick ourselves to keep from chasing him when we 

 take the trouble to remember that he can't help coming 

 back to us at the pace he is going, or down himself if he 

 chances any more of them as he did that last wall. 



Fortune does not always favour the brave, and after 

 the gallant Avay The Squire cut out the work on Saturday, 

 he deserved a better fate than that which awaited him at 

 the last fence. Even if all had gone well, I feel convinced 

 Drums Avould never have won, for both he and his rider 

 were cooked to a turn. Molly Riley was coming the 

 fastest of the lot, and was no doubt the freshest, but it 

 would have taken her all her time to beat Ice Cream in 

 spite of the latters having had all that he wanted. It was 

 a good finish spoiled by a most unfortunate accident. 



" Squire Walker" is doing as Ave 11 as could possibly 

 be hoped, and we all hope to see him at dinner to-morrow 

 night. 



The course was as good a one as possible. The 

 middle two miles of it were of the best, but both the start 



B, CPR 6 



