SOME CHRISTMAS REFLECTIONS 305 



if he offer you a " put-up " either before or after 

 the meet, you know that he will be disappointed if 

 you do not come, and that you will have a good time 

 if you do. 



When is dinner with a friend so thoroughly enjoy- 

 able as after a good run? There is small chance of 

 lack of subject for conversation on such an occasion, 

 when black Care sits as far from your chair as she 

 did from your saddle during the gallop. 



"Dined, o'er our claret we talk o'er the merit 

 Of every choice spirit that rode in the run ; 

 But here the crowd, sir, can talk just as loud, sir, 

 As those who were forward enjoying the fun." 



Yes ! we can still all go pretty straight over the 

 mahogany, and I notice little change in the prowess 

 of your youth-hood when the tobacco is lit. And yet ! 

 — and yet ! — it has been whispered that they of the 

 coming race seem a trifle less keen to get at their 

 fences than their fathers were in the days " when 

 all the world was young and all the trees were 

 green " ; when our gracious monarch went so well 

 with the Pytchley that Charles Payne said to 

 Whyte-Melville, " Sure to make a good king, sir ! 

 Sits so well, sir ! Sits so well ! " 



I know not if this whisper anent our lads in their 

 teens be true, but most earnestly hope it is not. 

 " Laudator temporals acti" how one hates the role ! 

 — But, still, the whisper is in the air, and I am asked 

 when we are going to see again a Grand National 

 with as many gentleman riders up as professionals? 

 And where are the boys whose dearest ambition used 



Mounds, Gentlemen, Pleane. ^il. 



