THE BUSMAN'S TIP 



heavy fog to London. Even the fog seemed switched 

 on for my benefit, for the longer we played the more 

 I won and — we were an hour late. 



There you have it in once : first impressions of sharps, 

 flats, gamblers and race-horses — for Quits was a real 

 race-horse. It was from Alf Saville, who used to be 

 as well known in the " Ring " as Dick Dunn was ; 

 they were contemporaries. Poor Saville ! I see him 

 about now, and wish that he was shouting the odds 

 with as much confidence as he did in those days. Bless 

 my heart, it must be thirty-six or thirty-seven years 

 ago. But they were great times, and the way one 

 used to lay down the law about certain horses which 

 were foreshadowed for big races was most convincing. 



Youth lies freely, and a win of two or three pounds 

 was magnified into something great. I used to ride 

 in a small one-horse bus which plied for the humble 

 penny, the minimum in those days, from Highbury 

 Barn to the Cock at Highbury. My father had one 

 of those old houses the gardens of which joined the 

 " Barn " garden, then run by the great Giovanelli as 

 a sort of imitation of Cremorne, and before I was old 

 enough to take or give tips it was the custom to be 

 taken to my bedroom window to see the fireworks 

 and hear the bacchanalian choruses of the students as 

 they marched home, breaking windows en route. 



On that " penny bus," as we used to call it — the 

 driver managing the old horse and collecting the fares 

 through a little trap-door in the roof — there were box 

 seats, and for a reward of a cigar now and then a certain 

 coachman would be communicative. He used to pour 

 in my ear his opinion about the Lincolnshire Handicap. 

 He had taken thirty-three bob to one three times 

 about Kaleidoscope for the race. I had to swank in 

 dollars, and he placed two bets to this sum for me. 



5 



