58 . THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



the Cesarewitch is past. This race, as well as the 

 Cambridgeshire, for which men in despair seem to 

 play double or quits, has countless victims; and 

 among those who "went" in ; 55, was one who, 

 whenever he heard long odds laid, would offer five 

 points less, and clench it with " You'd better take it ; 

 you know my money's good" a strange conceit 

 which almost rose to the dignity of a Ring proverb. 

 There are sometimes some strange chases between 

 creditors and debtors at Doncaster. We have seen 

 the latter driving off madly to the station, after the 

 St. Leger, to catch the first train either way ; and 

 the former, when they have failed to discover the 

 much wished for face in the enclosure, following in 

 hot haste. On one occasion a couple met on the 

 platform, and the erring one immediately dashed into 

 the Crimpsall Meadows, and pointed at his best pace 

 for the Conisboro' Woods, where he stayed till night- 

 fall, and then sent an emissary to pay his lodgings 

 and bring his carpet-bag. His pursuer expressed 

 strong fears that both of them would be " roarers " 

 for life, in consequence of the severity of the pace up 

 to the Don, where he was beaten off; and remarked 

 that if the horse could only have gone half as well as 

 his backer, he would have won in a trot. 



A suicide in consequence of Ring- losses is seldom 

 heard of now, but the stricken deer generally levants 

 without coming near the rooms, or else arrives with 

 a forehead of brass, receives all he can, " retires" 

 with his gains without offering to pay, and nods gaily 

 to his creditors when he next meets them. A pan of 

 charcoal or the Serpentine is about the last thing he 

 would dream of; and even Scrope Davies, who cut 

 his throat regularly after every Newmarket Meeting, 

 till the doctors knew exactly when to expect a sewing- 

 up summons, can find no imitators. About two-hun- 

 dred men may be said to have books now-a-days, 

 and Messrs. Ives, Harry Hill, Warrington, Morris, 



