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as true as I sit here alive, I could scarcely pull the 

 eleven stone down the weights had the best of me. 

 The Captain, he wanted me to have some breakfast, 

 but I said " No ; a very little will fetch me up :" so 

 I had a cup of coffee, and a bit of broiled bacon, and 

 a shaving of bread-and-butter, and just two glasses 

 of sherry : that made me eleven stone four it's a 

 ticklish thing is weight but I rode the race and won 

 it, and went back to Birmingham that night with 

 Green of Grantham. The stiffest course I ever rode 

 was at Ross, in Herefordshire there were seventy 

 fences. I wasn't very lucky ; there was some sludge 

 on the bank, my horse got his fore-feet in, and there 

 we stuck for a bit. 



The Marquis of Hastings was one of my pupils. 

 It was a sad job for foxhunting when he died : he 

 was just one of my sort. I was two months at his 

 place before he come of age. He sent for me to 

 Donnington, and I broke all his horses : I had never 

 seen him before. He had seven rare nice horses, and 

 very handy I got them. The first meet I went out 

 with him was Wartnaby Stone Pits. I rode by his 

 side, and I says, " My Lord, we'll save a bit of dis- 

 tance if we take this fence." So he looked at me, 

 and he laughed, and says, " Why, Christian, I was 

 never over a fence in my life." " God bless me ! 

 my Lord ; you don't say so !" and I seemed quite 

 took aback at hearing him say it. " It's true enough, 

 Christian ; I really mean it." " Well, my Lord," 

 says I, " you're on a beautiful fencer ; he'll walk up 

 to it and jump it. Now I'll go over the fence first." 

 " Well, if I fall off you won't laugh at me." " That 

 I won't, my Lord ; put your hands well down on his 

 withers, and let him come." It was a bit of a low 

 staked hedge and a ditch ; he got over as nice as 

 possible, and he gave quite a hurrah-like, and he 

 says, " There, I'm over my first fence that's a bless- 

 ing." Then I got him over a great many little 



