REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 169 



came on in the evening. He was attended by Dr. O'Brien, 

 and as the symptoms got worse, Dr. McConnell was called 

 in, but in spite of these gentlemen's unremitting care, he 

 gradually sank and died about six o'clock the next morning ; 

 sincerely mourned, deeply regretted, and affectionately re- 

 membered by relatives, friends, planters and sportsmen. 

 Vale, George Thomas the good and true. The memory 

 and the worth of George Thomas will long remain green in 

 the treasured recollections of all who ever came within the 

 influence of the loving charm of the man whose untimely 

 death is sincerely mourned by the entire European community 

 of Calcutta." 



In 1885 Arthur Forbes and the same stewards held office 

 again at Sonepore, and the racing was a distinct improvement on 

 the previous year's form. More horses, a better class of them, 

 and more interest taken in a sport that had of late years 

 been somewhat treated as a necessary evil. The results were 

 of a rather mixed description, not altogether favorable to 

 backers, as, for instance, in the Selling Stakes, for which Blue- 

 bell was supported in a fashion almost reckless, considering 

 that she was opposed by Seer, a very much improved horse. 

 But the fallibility of human judgment was shown by the de- 

 spised Badger, belonging to young Dick Llewhellin, making 

 his own running and winning cleverly, while Messrs. Apperley, 

 and Short, on Bluebell and Seer, were waiting for him to 

 come back to them. The bustle consequent on young Lochin- 

 var's improper behaviour towards his young woman, was 

 nothing compared to those two sportsmen's hurrying up in 

 the last hundred yards, and the Principality of Wales must 

 have chortled over the news of Dick Llewhellin's coup. Red 

 Deer in the Trial Stakes was good goods, though the Jaint- 

 pore stable manfully stood the ancient Triplets. There was 

 some indecision in the Red Deer camp, as to whether their 

 second string Vice Versa so named from haying turned her 



