REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



shooting with a junior civlian, a Mr. Davison who had a 

 very complimentary nickname ; Davison missed the par- 

 tridge he aimed at, but potted the Commissioner's dog, which 

 rolled over dead as a herring, Jenkins dropped his gun, looked 

 at Davison and thunderd out " Y're a fool, Sir, " and off 

 he went home ; Davison bolted back to his Sub-division in a 

 blue funk. Mr. Abercrombie, the Opium Agent, better known 

 as "Bicrom," and Fred Collingridge completed the body 

 of Stewards for that year. Sonepore never has seen, and 

 probably never will again see, such a year as this was, 

 for Lord Mayo, the most popular Viceroy that ever repre- 

 sented Her Imperial Majesty, was present, and in addi- 

 tion, the mighty Jung Bahadoor, Prime Minister of our 

 staunch ally Nepaul, with a bodyguard of 300 Gurkhas, a harem 

 of pretty, lively, Nepaulese Princesses, and a following which 

 attracted even more admiration from the natives, on account 

 of their barbaric pearl and gold, than even the scarlet uni- 

 formed chuprassies, and bodyguard, of the herculean Irish Earl. 

 Unfortunately the racing was poor, although the horses ga- 

 thered there represented the best in the country. Sir Seymour 

 Blane had gone home and Joseph now had Mr. Raphael Solano's 

 string from Arrah; by this time the large-hearted young Spanish 

 zemindar was slowly, but surely, ruining himself over the green 

 turf, and even more seductive green cloth; he had Bridesmaid, 

 an English mare of no mean reputation, and the Arabs Suliman, 

 and Rising Star. Tommy Tingey steered them. John Wheal, 

 who had then charge of the strong string of Mr. Mullick, of the 

 Seven Tanks, Calcutta, brought them all up to the meeting, 

 the black mare Moonlight, the brown filly Camelia and the 

 chestnut Miss Trelawney all English the Australian Cen- 

 turion, the beautiful black country-bred Gipsy, and the Arabs 

 Acrobat and Prince Regent. Finch, the nice little English 

 light weight lad, rode for the stable; the untimely death of 

 this straight and good rider^ a few years after this, was uni- 



