280 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



than other hothes ?" After losing J20,000 in St. 

 James-street, he gaily spoke of himself as being only 

 " a little crippled " ; and it was in the enthusiasm of 

 a steeple-chase home to Melton, with Dick Christian 

 as fox, that he declared "what fan we should have 



if it wasn't for these hounds !" " Dick Gurney" 



refused 800 guineas for Sober Kobin, from Mr. 

 Maling, of Bath. This horse was originally purchased 

 by Mr. Anderson, senior, for 80, at Lincoln fair, 

 when he was four years old, and was sold to Mr. 

 Gurney for 100 guineas. He was then put into the 

 hands of a Norfolk farmer, to ride with harriers for 

 a year, before Mr. Gurney took him into his own sta- 

 ble. He was a handsome short-legged brown animal, 

 perhaps a trifle under sixteen one, and his power 

 even under such a fearful handicap as nineteen 

 stone for twelve seasons was incredible. One of the 

 very few horses of that time which equalled him in 

 substance was Mr. Edge's Gayman : but as Mr. Edge 

 was a Quorn man, and Mr. Gurney invariably hunt- 

 ed with the Pytchley, the Mammoths were never 

 fairly laid alongside each other in a run. Mr. Gur- 

 ney did not begin to ride till late in life, and then 

 he went bruising away from his first find as if he had 

 been at it all his life, comforting himself with the 

 notion that " if heavy men break their horses' backs, 

 light men break their hearts/' 



It was a royal sight to see him go pounding along 

 on Kobin, with a pound-weight of gold and silver 

 jingling in his waistcoat ; and if he did not jump 

 through a gate, out would come half-a- crown and a 

 very forcible sanatory recommendation to any old 

 stick- gathering lady who had the luck to open it for 

 him. In spite of his always getting so forward, he 

 sat like a sack, and could never be said to have any 

 hands on a horse. Old Prince was also another of 

 these thorough-bred waggon horses ; so good, in fact, 

 that the late Lord Forester and Sir Robert Leighton 



