REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 149 



at any rate the meeting was not the failure it promised to 

 be a few weeks previously. Jimmy had his old lot and 

 backed up the meeting loyally, his stable consisted of 

 Mercedes, now Rowland Hudson's, Blackbird, Glacialine, 

 Geraldine, Scamp, Dunrobin, Torchlight and Toots. Durban- 

 gah had signified his intention of dropping racing, as after 

 Major Ben Roberts went home, he could find no one to 

 manage for him. From the camps were lost the regular ones 

 of Mr. Metcalfe, the Commissioner, gone on deputation, and 

 Durbangah's, but Mr. and Mrs. Mangles had a large farewell 

 one, and Gwatkin Williams too. So had the giddy Chupra 

 bachelors, one of whom was soon to leave their ranks. 

 Sarun backed up the meeting heartily, and Jimmy had his 

 usual big gathering. Early in the season Messrs. Abbott and 

 Apcar foreseeing the falling off in Behar of first class racing, 

 had begun to train a portion of their string at Bangalore, and 

 to patronise the other Indian Meetings. Poor old Spider, 

 the hero of a hundred hard fought tussels, had crossed the 

 bourne. Along with Somerset, Paragraph and The Abbot, 

 Southall had brought up a chase horse to Jaintpore for the 

 popular Mr. George Thomas of Calcutta ; this was Cumber- 

 land, a fine big bay. During August he was attacked with a 

 go of heat appoplexy, and Abbott put Dewing, the cross 

 country jock, on to old Spider's back about ten o'clock 

 in the morning, and told him to ride smartly to the nearest 

 telegraph station, Mozufferpore, twenty miles off, and thence 

 wire to Calcutta for a Veterinary-Surgeon. As far as is 

 known Dewing scarcely slacked rein, till when within a 

 quarter of mile of his destination, the game old horse 

 dropped dead from over exertion. Spider was a studbred 

 rejection, had never been a day sick, and never had a shoe 

 on his foot in his life. The Stewards were in a dreadful 

 quandary just before the meeting. To add to their other 

 troubles, they heard the new Bengal and North-Western 



