REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



one foretold a certainty of mortification that they could go 

 on taking off slices as long as they left the elbow joint for 

 with that he could, and without it he could not, ride again. 

 Fortunately Dr. Maclaren proved right, and the patient 

 was soon out and about again. His inventive genius did not 

 let the loss of his hand bother him long, for while in bed he 

 taught himself to write with his left hand and he got a local 

 Mistree to make him a sort of bucket which fastened on to the 

 elbow and into the end of which he could screw a knife or 

 hook : the latter was a most useful implement, it came in 

 grandly to open champagne or soda water with, and in a row 

 proved a most unanswerable argument. He had perfect hands 

 on a horse before, but even with this hook, he was still a master 

 of the art of riding, and it was infinitely better to put him up 

 than to risk your horse's chances to any average mutton-fisted 

 lubber fancying himself a horseman ; he had his reins made 

 with loops and he could change his hold as quick with the 

 hook as with his natural hand. In September he was in the 

 saddle in the Grand Annual at Dehra on Horace Hayes' Free- 

 trader and got second to Frank Johnson on Ring ; he won a 

 three-quarter flat race on Finette, and at Umballa he won the 

 hurdle race with the same mare, which he had, since his ac- 

 cident, schooled for the jump. game. 



" At Umballa he won the mile and a half handicap on 

 Finette easily, and the Full Cry Chase on Sikunder. At 

 Allahabad, where Dr. Tippets had got up a benefit, Bertie 

 won a brilliantly ridden chase on Polly Studd's Not On. 

 Down in Calcutta Finette won the Colonials and at last Bertie 

 had a win at Ballygunge, getting War Eagle home in front of 

 Colonist, a heap of good ones behind. In 1876 Daybreak 

 while going a spurt fell down dead, having burst a blood- 

 vessel in the brain. At Meerut that year Bertie was fairly 

 successful with some of Mr. Geneste's horses ; he won Mr. 

 Collins' Purse on Mermaid and the Galloway Handicap Hurdle 



