REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 127 



man, now alas no more. Talkaway had broken down and 

 been bought for the Lall Serryah stud by Jimmy McLeod, poor 

 old Echo had joined the majority, having come to his death in 

 a most terrible way. Harry Abbott, who had gone to the Gya 

 meeting straight from Calcutta, sent instructions to his trainer, 

 Robinson, to bring some of his horses from Jaintpore to Gya. 

 Robinson took all those likely to be wanted, but left old Echo, 

 not thinking he'd stand the long march of seventy miles. The 

 old horse, who was in a big tatti loose box by himself, hearing 

 the others clear out, got into a terrible state of excitement at 

 being left behind, and started neighing and running round the 

 box, tearing at the bamboos with his teeth, in his anxiety to 

 get out and follow them. Up to the bungalow rushed a pestilen- 

 tial servant and yelled out to Mrs. Abbott that Echo had gone 

 mad, and would tear down the stable and be loose in a few 

 minutes ; to call her children into the house, and barricade all 

 the doors was only the work of a few minutes. " Shoot him," 

 she said to the servant, " before he can get out and bite anyone." 

 Away went the slave, and the only weapon available 

 was an old muzzle loader gun, some native powder was 



rammed in, and a lot of pice used in place of bullets ; a hole 

 made through the tatti, and about four shots at intervals 

 were fired, till the poor brute dropped, shrieking in his death 

 agony. 



The old horse's pedigree is worth recording: 

 Echo was a chestunt, bred at the Cape by Alexander 

 Vanderbyl from the thoroughbred English horse Saraband. 

 His dam was either by Emilius or Young Saddler, both 

 T. B. E.'s, and her dam ran back to Lord Charles Somerset's 

 Irish mare which he imported into the Cape as a two-year-old. 

 Echo could not gallop a bit, and he was thrown out of training 

 into a large paddock where he was a source of amusement to 

 everyone, for he appeared half cracked ; he used to pick up 



sticks in his mouth, take them into a corner and make a pile 



