REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



Messrs. Abbott and Abercrombie in their endeavours to steer 

 the Sonepore Meeting through the shoals and quicksands 

 which have at length overwhelmed it as a first-class meeting. 

 But we doubt very much if a single visitor to the meeting of 

 1884 can be found to gainsay the general verdict that the 

 change from a first-class to a sky meeting is infinitely for the 

 better. As long as racing was conducted on honorable prin- 

 ciples the sportsmen of Behar lent themselves heart and soul 

 to carrying the meeting through, but the malpractices of Mr. 

 Johnny Armstrong met with scant mercy at the hands of this 

 community, and a frequent recurrence of that ubiquitous 

 sportsman's performances has resulted at last in the manage- 

 ment dispensing altogether with his attendance, and no 

 one regrets his ostracism from the shady groves of Sone- 

 pore. Hence the declension of the gathering to a sky 

 meeting and the right man was in the right place, and his 

 name Arthur Forbes. The result of his labors can be best 

 appreciated by the frequently expressed consensus of opinion 

 that the Behar Planters' Association should -exert its utmost 

 influence with Government to render that sporting civilian a 

 permanent institution in Chupra. This could easily be managed 

 for him until his turn comes for the Judgeship at Chupra and 

 Commissionership of Patna. When the climax of a Lieute- 

 nant-Governorship falls vacant we shall of course have to bear 

 the heart's wrench of parting ; but there is no earthly reason 

 against even a Lieutenant-Governor piloting the Sonepore meet, 

 and we can quite sympathise with the- joy with which a* 

 Lieutenant-Governor would temporarily divest himself of the 

 cares of state to gambol through a planters' gathering. An old 

 aphorism teaches us to clutch the right man, when found. 



" A fortnight is short notice indeed in which to make 

 arrangements for such a week's crowding of events as came 

 off between the 3ist October and the 6th November, and the 

 fact that not a hitch occurred throughout, speaks volumes for 



