RACES AT AYLESBURY. 93 



bury from the injuries received while being pulled out 

 of the river. Mr. Allnutt, on the grey mare Laurestina, 

 was the first out of the river, and sailed gallantly away at 

 least a long fiald ahead, before ever old Martin Bcecher, 

 on a well-known rat-tailed horse, Vivian, could get 

 well on his way. He had ridden his horse gently dcwn 

 the bank into the water, and once on the other side flung 

 himself off on to the land, and pulled his horse out, re- 

 mounted, and set off in hot pursuit of the mare. That 

 veteran sportsman, John Brown of Tring, still living, 

 though about ninety years of age — immortalized by the 

 poetical description of the " Bag Fox," when Lord 

 Lonsdale hunted with his well-known harriers — was on 

 his famous hunter, Confidence, and had a regular souser : 

 no novelty however to him, as he always fearlessly rode 

 to hounds at everything which came in his way. Then 

 the young jockey, Jem Mason, one of the finest and most 

 accomplished horsemen who ever appeared in the pig- 

 skin, made his dediit in public on Mr. Tilbury's Pros- 

 pero. Mr. Anderson, I think, rode his own horse, The 

 Poet. But each and every one found the bottom of the 

 river, and many of them did not make any attempt after- 

 wards to overtake the leading horses. 



In the end, Laurestina, after keeping the lead for the 

 whole distance from the river, fell from sheer distress 

 into the winning field, and old Beecher, on Vivian, slipped 

 past her and won cleverly. Mr. Allnutt quickly re- 

 mounted and came in second, whilst the third place wvis 

 awarded to Prospero. Captain Lamb, the owner of 

 Vivian, won only a small stake, as plunging on steeple- 

 chases was but little practised in those days. 



