346 The Post and the Paddock. 



We were almost touching each other over Sharplands, 

 and just before the road I says, " Squire, you're beat 

 for a ioo/.," but he never made no answer. Joe 

 Tomlin and Charles Christian they stood close against 

 Twyford Brook : I got well over that. Then we had 

 some rails ; such stiff uns ! Clasher hits them with 

 all four legs, and chucked The Squire right on to his 

 neck ; Clinker took 'em like a bird. We were each 

 in a mess then ; The Squire he lands in a bog, and 

 his horse makes a dead stop, it did take a deal out of 

 him ; then I jumps right into a dung heap, up to 

 Clinker's knees ; we had no manner of idea the things 

 were there. Going up John o' Gaunt's field we were 

 together, but I turns to get some rails in the corner ; 

 he was such a good one at rails was Clinker; I 

 thought he was winning, but deary me, down he 

 comes at the last fence, dead beat. Clinker he lays 

 for some minutes, and then he gets up as lively as 

 ever; the horse looked in no manner of form, as 

 round as a hoop for all the world, as if he was going 

 to Horncastle Fair. They held Clasher up, and they 

 flung water in his face, and he won in the last hundred 

 yards from superior training, and that's the honest 

 truth. Many didn't like Clinker, but I never got on 

 so good a steeple-chaser. I'll tell you one though 

 that was better, that's Corringham ; I won the 

 Grantham Steeple-chase on him, and Mr. Greene 

 bought him for 200 guineas. How hard " The 

 Squire" did ride that match day to be sure ! I went 

 up to call on him one afternoon at St. John's Wood, 

 and he pointed to that picture of the finish, hanging 

 up just opposite the fireplace, and he says to me 

 " Dick, that Clasher and Clinker day beat me a 

 deal more than the 200 miles." He was at his 

 horse all the way. He gave me a mount on Tom 

 Thumb, that great trotting-horse of his, that week ; I 

 rode him round Tattersall's paddock ; it's like flying. 

 I felt fit to tumble off; I thought he was going 



