REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 245 



lot. Good old Sheik Esau Bin Kurtas then had the stables 

 now occupied by Veterinary-Surgeon Lauter, and many 

 a Derby winner hailed from his stalls. There is, we believe, 

 only one sportsman now left in Calcutta of the many that 

 used to race in those days, a gentleman whose name was 

 held in the highest esteem, for through a long and deservedly 

 honoured career he ever went straight as a die we allude to 

 Mr. G. M. Blacker. Aye, they were a fine old lot who sup- 

 ported the Turf then, Officers of Her Majesty's Service, Civi- 

 lians and Merchants -men who raced for the love of the game 

 and the horse too, and who kept up the grandest sport in the 

 world, without dragging into it native millionaires, most 

 of whom care not a brass farthing for either horses or sport 

 itself, but merely join in because it introduces them to Euro- 

 pean society, and brings their names prominently before the 

 public. H.H. of Cooch Behar is one of the notable excep- 

 tions. As poor Surgeon-Colonel Gaye wrote us only a few 

 days before his death, there was real camaraderie among the 

 old bloods of the turf. In those days professionals were not 

 too numerous, and light weight ones few and far between, so 

 G.R.'s had a far better time than now, for the Burra Sahebs, 

 not only did not mind our getting up in chases, but when they 

 found youngsters who could ride, they would buy horses for 

 the fun of seeing us steer them ; and is there anything in this 

 life to equal the keen enjoyment felt, when with a good, fit, 

 sound nag under you, pitted against your best pals, you go 

 sailing away over three miles of sensibly built fences ? Aus- 

 tralia's only poet, poor Adam Lindsay Gordon, describes it 

 well, and why ? because he experienced it times without 

 number : 



Oh the vigour with which the Earth is rife, 



The spirit of joyous motion ; 



The fever, the fulness of animal life 



Can be drained from no earthly potion. 



