43 The Post and the Paddock. 



rush on the post. Lads, however promising, were 

 held quite cheap then by their seniors ; but in the case 

 of Sam Rogers, a regular row was raised after one race 

 at Newmarket, because some of his craft had kindly 

 sung out some directions to him. The nicest ridden 

 finish we ever remember was one between Old Eng- 

 land (J. Day, junior), Plaudit (Marson), and Prologue 

 (Robinson), over the Abingdon Mile, in the Houghton 

 of 1844. Old England made his own running all the 

 way, and the set-to between him and the two others, 

 who challenged him right and left in the cords, after 

 he had got his pull, was a perfect masterpiece. Young 

 John, as fine a horseman, both for power, seat, and 

 science, as ever held a bridle, certainly never rode 

 better ; and those who remember the half-sluggish 

 half-roguish way in which Old England invariably 

 finished, can appreciate the exquisite mouth-touching 

 he required at such a crisis, when the two were at his 

 neck in the last stride. Besides this bout, Harry 

 Edwards outriding Bill Scott over Knavesmire on the 

 two-year-old Naworth, or Connolly over the Beacon, 

 on Don John ; Chappie making running from end to 

 end, and winning a head on Lugwardine at Chelten- 

 ham, or waiting on Landgrave for the Cambridgeshire 

 with such agonizing patience, till the last two strides, 

 that we felt that if we had possessed the aim of a 

 Camelford, we could have gladly taken a pistol out 

 and shot the reins in two ; Robinson doing Sam 

 Darling by a short head on Barrier at Ascot, or rally- 

 ing Rathmines home for the Audley End ; Sam 

 Rogers holding ungenerous brutes like Vasa and 

 Walmer, hard in front, and just coaxing them, after 

 being beaten once or twice in a race, to make one 

 more effort ; Sim Templeman getting his pull, and 

 coming again on the post with the British Yeoman for 

 the Doncaster Two-year-old Stakes, or lifting Catha- 

 rina home first by about a nose for the Manchester 

 Cup ; Alfred Day nursing the sinking Dervish at 



