THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



were killed, it is true, but the Corinthians escaped, with the 

 exception of one, who was actually impaled on the iron spikes 

 on which ho fell ; but, hard as Corinthian brass, he was not 

 killed, and in a few weeks recovered. Then, on another occa- 

 sion, in returning from Salt Hill, our hero had a narrow 

 escape, as had also the party who were on his coach. His 

 horses got the better of him, and where, reader, would you 

 suppose they were pulled up ? You would never guess, so you 

 shall hear at once. — Between the eight horses of the down 

 Exeter waggon ! Miraculous as it may appear, neither man 

 nor horse was injured to any serious extent. The fact was, 

 what are called 'the stretchers' — rods about the thickness 

 of a mop handle, which were attached to each pair of the 

 waggon-horses, to prevent their leaning towards each other in 

 their work — checked the career of the horses, as they broke 

 their way through them, and so far modified the collision 

 between the waggon and the coach, as to cause no further 

 damage than breaking the pole of the latter, and hurting two 

 of the horses. 



It was during this visit to London that Frank Raby was 

 elected a member of the B.D.C., at that time held at the small 

 town of Benson, in Oxfordshire, but afterwards removed, on 

 account of the distance from London, to the Black Dog Inn, at 

 Bedfont, a small village fourteen miles from London, on the 

 Great Western Road, then kept by a person named Harvey, 

 famous for his beefsteaks, as also for the fish sauce which still 

 bears his name. It was composed of about thirty members (at 

 least seventy have been numbered since), including the best 

 and most experienced amateur coachmen of those days, at the 

 head of whom was the great John Wall, the father of the field 

 and the road, as he was even then called in the sporting 

 world ; and a curious circumstance occurred on the first day 

 of our hero making his appearance at it. George iv., then 

 Prince of Wales, was changing horses at the door of the inn 

 at which the club dined, and was informed that his health was 

 that moment about to be drunk by the members, with three 

 times three. The Prince afterwards acknowledged the compli- 

 ment to one of the party, at Carlton House, adding — ' Was 

 not old John Wall among you ? ' On being answered in the 

 affirmative, he replied — 'I thought I knew his halloo.' Then 

 there was another well-known and amusing character, a mem- 



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