l8 REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



tion of secretaries, or the reverse. In those days Mr. Larpent 

 had made the Calcutta Race Meetings what they were, just as 

 Charley Marten did afterwards, and Ben Roberts as his suc- 

 cessor. See what Neild, Renton, Turnbull and Kitty Apthorp 

 have done for Lucknow, what poor Schuyller did for Ran- 

 goon, and ye gods what a chaotic mess has been made of 

 Burma racing under the mismanaging duffers since his day. 

 Tom Le Mesurier keeps Bombay, and Poona, together, and 

 Vinicombe Davis made Vizianagram. Never was the differ- 

 ence between good and bad management better illustrated 

 than was the case at this Sonepore under review. Mr. Har- 

 bord who, in a combined spirit of good nature and false appre- 

 ciation of his own capacity, had taken up the reins, flung down 

 in a regrettable if natural enough pet by Hewett, proved in- 

 capable of bringing horses to the post, and under the dripping 

 canvas ungenerous and thoughtless murmurs were raised 

 against his management. Mr. Hewett happened to be a mem- 

 ber of one of the camps, and to him hied a body of the 

 disaffected. " Pull us out of the hole " was the cry, and with 

 the usual Cromwellian " Take away this bauble " he said 

 he'd do his best. Poor Harbord, like the proverbial pursued 

 ostrich, tried to hide his diminished head, and watched 

 the rest of the meeting with mingled feelings of scorn 

 and contempt. But the ablest men fail when trying to make 

 bricks without straw, and when even Jews failed, at 

 that game, small blame to Mr. Hewett, if without horses or 

 jockeys he could do no better than let the third day's events 

 fall through, and then for the fourth day get up a couple of 

 events, one a half mile scurry, and the other Rajah Moderna- 

 rain's purse of Rs. 500 with G. Rs. up ; the reason for this 

 clause being that all but one or two professionals had fled the 

 scene. Into the lottery room gathered about ten o'clock, a 

 few of those determined to do their ultimatum to make things 

 buzz ; but not even the charming of the Bayard who had come 



