THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



CHAPTER VI. 



SAM CHIFNEY. 



u And Yorkshire sees, with eye of fear, 

 The Southron stealing from the rear. 

 Aye ! mark his action well ! " 



SIR F. H. DOYLE. 



fHE autumn of 1799 brought with it Sam's thir- 

 teenth birthday ; and as a lad of that age, who 

 could still scale 4st. 21bs., had not the chance of three 

 Newmarket mounts a year, his father determined to 

 send him to his maternal uncle, Mr. Smallman, who 

 was then private trainer to the Earl of Oxford, at 

 Brampton Park, in Herefordshire. Although he was 

 sorrowful enough, in his quiet way, at bidding good- 

 bye to all at Newmarket, the little fellow looked 

 eagerly forward to the rides on the " Welsh circuit/' 

 which his uncle held out to him. He bujyed him- 

 self up too with the hopes that the Prince's heart 

 was still true to racing, and that he and his father 

 would in due time share the Royal mounts. When 

 the " Escape affair" happened, he was little more 

 than five ; but still the image of a handsome stout 

 gentleman coming down, over and over again, to his 

 father's parlour, with Colonel Leigh, and not only 

 insisting on him and Will staying in the room while 

 they chatted there, but often leaving a bright new 

 guinea in their hands, was one calculated to haunt a 

 child's memory for many a long day. With such 



