LECTURE. 355 



I fell : they talked a deal about my jumping thirty- 

 three feet that day, but I've done a vast more than 

 that. 



Clinker's and dasher's was a great match ; they 

 said it was 1,500 gs. a-side. They sent for me the 

 night before, did Captain White and Captain Ross, 

 and locked me into their room : then they gave me 

 their orders: they says, "We mean you to wait, 

 Dick"; I said, "You'd better let me let the horse 

 go along, gentlemen, and not upset him ; he'll take 

 a deal more out of himself by waiting." So I got 

 them persuaded round. Old Driver the groom was 

 outside, and he comes up to me " What do they 

 shay ? What do you want to wait for ?" So I told 

 him I was to go along, and that pleased him, it did. 

 We thought it was all right then. We weighed at 

 Dalby, the Squire and I bless me ! I never was in 

 such condition and away we trotted to Gartree Hill. 

 They were walking the horses about, and Captain Ross 

 he says to me, " Clinker looks well." " He looks too 

 well, Captain," I said. Then he lifted me up, and he 

 tells me the orders were changed, and I must wait. 

 " It's giving away a certainty," says I, ' ' and if I get 

 a fall then I am all behind." But it was no manner 

 of use talking. Sir Vincent Cotton and Mr. Gil- 

 mour they started us, and Mr. Maher he was umpire. 

 We rode twelve stone a-piece: I was in tartan, and the 

 Squire, of course he'd be in green. When we are at 

 the post, he says, "Now, Christian I know what your 

 orders are I do ask one thing; don't jump on me if 

 I fall." I said, " I'll give you my word, ' Squire/ I 

 won't." The gentlemen they could hardly keep with 

 us, and some of them had two or three horses fixed. 

 We were almost touching each other over Sharp- 

 lands, and just before the road I says, " Squire, 

 you're beat for a 100," but he never made no an- 

 swer. Joe Tomlin and Charles Christian they stood 

 close against Twyford Brook : I got well over that. 



A A 2 



