i88 REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



whistled for that money, and got frightfully chaffed into the 

 bargain. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



YEAR 1887. 



If the appointing of a civilian like Mr. Clay to a sporting 

 centre, casts a damper on all social gatherings, the reverse is 

 the case when a good fellow is gazetted, and it was a relief to 

 all supporters of Sonepore when in 1887 we knew Mr. Jim 

 Bourdillon was to be Collector of Chupra and Hamilton Gor- 

 don, Judge, for both were certain to back up the meeting 

 warmly. On the I5th August, at Harry Abbott's request the 

 Stewards held a meeting at Mr. Bourdillon's house, Chupra, at 

 which the majority of the European residents and stewards were 

 present. Harry read to the meeting a vast amount of corres- 

 pondence, including letters from Lord William Beresford and 

 other sportsmen, promising cordial support to the meeting as far 

 as horses went, and also letters from Calcutta merchants giving 

 royal assistance in the way of prizes. The funds being shown 

 to be in a satisfactory state, it was resolved to increase the 

 value of several of the purses, and as the correspondence hand- 

 ed in showed that many owners of stables grumbled at the 

 short notice given, the original dates fixed for first entries 

 were postponed till I5th September. The dates selected for 

 the races ran the fixture so close on to Lucknow as to leave 

 insufficient time for horses to reach Sonepore after running at 

 the Oudh capital, the Stewards, therefore, sanctioned the 

 meeting being postponed to Friday 4th, Monday 7th and 

 Wednesday gth, November. Later postponement was im- 

 possible, for the native fair began breaking up about the 5th, 

 and as many of the local residents go to Sonepore quite as 

 much on business as for pleasure, the receipts would be affect- 

 ed detrimentally if the fair and the races were not fixed 

 simultaneously, The postponement had besides the advantage 



