REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 211 



of Rajaputti. The Jaintpore stable, in spite of the loss of the 

 Apcar-Gasper string, was as strong as ever, for in addition to 

 Colonel Simpson's champion ponies, Mike and Marquise, the 

 powerful Jodhpore stable, now under the charge of Captain 

 Lee-Warner, summered there ; as well as Mr. E. H. Gregory's, 

 Mr. Dolby's and Mr. Charles' little lots. Jimmy had some rat- 

 tling good ponies, and Lall Serryah bred foals ready to run 

 this year, Tete-a-Tete, one of General Parrott's, Queenie, 

 Finesse, Talkative (scxld to Charley Webb), Jessie, Sylvester, 

 Fleur de Lys, and the walers Knightsbridge and Cavendish 

 were his lot. First entries in July were excellent, the Chupra 

 and Tirhoot jeunesse doree having evidently made up their 

 minds to back up the meeting royally. In August we got the 

 sad news of the death at home, from internal cancer, of 

 poor M. P. Gasper, than whom a straighter sportsman never 

 lived ; he was a great loss to the Indian Turf, as well as to the 

 Calcutta bar. During the same month Harry Abbott lost his 

 brother Edgar, a particularly fine horseman, who was the crack 

 G.R. of China and Japan, he died from aneurism of the heart, 

 brought on by trying to keep his weight down to the eight 

 stone scale. The camps indented for at Sonepore were fully 

 up to the average, Messrs. Stevens, Bourdillon, Lockhart, 

 Barclay, McNaghten and Abbott had the biggest ones, and the 

 new Dinapore Regiment, The Kings, was well to the fore. 

 Colonel Joey Dene, Mr. Lawrie Johnstone, Mr. Jock Mclnnis, 

 Captain Lee-Warner, Mr. Boteler and Major Beaver were 

 among the guests. Very imposing, as visitors drove in from 

 the station, looked the new enclosure, and as over four hun- 

 dred rupees of gate money was taken from non-subscribers, 

 the fifteen hundred rupees spent on it was certainly well 

 laid out. 



That Sonepore was regaining some of its ancient great- 

 ness was undoubtedly the opinion of all who assembled to 

 attend the races. Both in the number of people present, the 



