REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 69 



lottery bought him for thirty rupees. A hurdle race was 

 cleverly won by Polly Studd, on Jack Becher's handsome 

 brown Encounter, beating Captain St. Paul on Stella, and 

 Jimmy's pretty little mare, Brown Duchess, ridden by owner. 

 Joseph came a lovely cropper over the preliminary hurdle. A 

 good sell was perpetrated one morning. Sir Claude de Cres- 

 pigny bet Old Lavelle, of Bangalore, one of the Southern Con- 

 federacy, a case of champagne, that he'd carry him on his back 

 a hundred yards, on a racing day, between the races, and would 

 run the distance in fourteen seconds. The bet was booked 

 and both carrier and rider appeared. " I am ready" said rider, 

 " Strip first" said carrier, " I said I'd take you not your clothes 

 so strip or stump up." Midst roars of laughter the sell was 

 accepted, and the wine drank that night by the jockeys at din- 

 ner. Grateful indeed were all to Mr. and Mrs. Dickenson, and 

 the Stewards, for a meeting which has scarcely ever been 

 eclipsed, and at which as Stuart Jackson expressed himself 

 " the fun and divarshun were too lovely for words." 



CHAPTER XVI. 



YEAR 1870. 



Although so far removed from head-quarters as Ghazi- 

 pore, Mr. Dickenson consented to pilot the meeting of 

 1870, and his programme drew good entries ; a lot of new 

 names among the owners showed the public confidence in the 

 management. Bombay, the North-West, and Calcutta sent in 

 their contingents, and it was confidently hoped the Governor 

 General, Lord Mayo, would be present, and run horses, but 

 he had to put off his visit, because it was found necessary to 

 postpone the races from the original date, the 3rd to the I5th 

 November. Floods had swamped the course in the middle of 

 October, fear of fever kept many ladies away, and consequent- 

 ly camps were smaller than in 1869. Black Eagle, with John 

 Irving up, won the Leger. Favourite walked over for the 



