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with heavy heart, seriously debating as to whether or not I should at 

 once sink without a struggle into a slave, but now I am determined to 

 rattle the old buggy more than ever with my heels. The sport in 

 whose history I hope to live, is not on the wane, notwithstanding the 

 lukewarmness shown at the two first meets. Yesterday was a day 

 of the old sort, one in which I should have been proud to have taken 

 part, and my spirits are raised accordingly, for I feared much from all 

 I saw and heard of the two previous chases, that the grand old sport 

 was on its last legs. Not only were there but a few men and horses 

 who really went according to my ideas of the old form, but I am told 

 that a certain sporting oracle of a contemporary of yours, threw cold 

 water upon those who went to the front, and invoked the memory of 

 the old days in which I figured so prominently, to back up his fault- 

 finding, and spoke contemptuously of the course to train horses for 

 steeplechasing. Woe be the day that any man who had seen me go in 

 my prime should complain of the wretched pace there was shown in 

 the iwo first meets — or that my followers in the sport should be debarred 

 the chance of feeling the pride I do, in having been the school-master 

 of so many good steeplechasers — I supposed the times were changed, 

 and my friends who used to buy young horses make cross-country nags 

 of them and ride them themselves between the flags, were replaced by 

 others who import steeplechasers ready-made and jockeys to ride them 

 too, thinking it out of their line to ride anything faster than a slow 

 canter, over jumps not too big. But yesterday and the exercise of a 

 little thought h.ive shown me my fears were groundless, for had we not 

 a splendid run then ? I thought that perhaps this sporting oracle was 

 a fresh hand in the pig-skin, and that by-and-bye he would gain courage 

 and not wait until holes were knocked in mud walls, hurdles floored and 

 fences generally dilapidated, before he allowed his steed to shove him 

 along. For the present, if I am right, he should stick to the horse of the 

 style of his beau idenl Milkmaid, and have patience and take courage. 

 Well, yesterday from my point of vantage, I saw a goodly gather- 

 ing of the right sort. There were The Young Un on his handy 

 honest black ; your genial straight-going noble Captain on Lancer ; 

 a gallant Colonel on Clarion ; the Bank representative on Crushing 

 Luck ; the sporting vet on Temperance ; a roguish specimen of my 

 race, who on the two previous occasions declined most resolutely to 

 carry another rider over the course, his welter brother aspirant on his 

 tandem leader as of old, the Father of the human race on Beeswing ; 

 Happy Jack's old owner on Young Ballarat ; the German and 

 French representatives, Jorrock's former master on a varmint looking 

 grey ; your sporting solicitor on Colac, the sporting Oracle on his 

 weight-carrier ; Milkmaid with her new owner up and other good 

 men and true. 



