. A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS 293 



sucli a thing happened, as is related by a magazine 

 whose position places the authority of the story 

 beyond a doubt. 



' A most extraordinary accident happened some 

 years ago on the Chester racecourse. A colt called 

 Hairbreadth, by Escape, the property of the late Mr. 

 Lockley, bolted over the ropes, and coming in contact 

 with an officer of dragoons, Sir John Miller, who 

 was on horseback, was killed by the peak of the 

 helmet entering his skull wlien on the head of the 

 haronet, who escaped with a trifling injury.' ^ 



The Arabs, clever horsemen as they are, are quite 

 as liable to accident as English grooms. But the 

 Arab likes to be kicked by a thoroughbred horse, and 

 cannot endure to be put to any pain by an animal 

 whose pedigree is at all defective. 



An English surgeon had been setting the broken 

 leg of an Arab, who complained more of the accident 

 that had befallen him than was thought becoming in 

 one of his tribe : this the surgeon remarked to him, 

 and his answer was truly characteristic. ' Do not 

 think. Doctor, I should have uttered a word of com- 

 plaint if my own high-bred colt, in a playful kick, 

 had broken both my legs ; but to have a bone broken 

 by a brute of a jachass is too bad, and I will 

 complain.' ^ 



The kick of one horse is bad enough, but what 



^ Quc^rterly Reviejv, No. xcviii. 

 . ' Eenileifs Magazine, 1852. 



