THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



exhibited some mark of distinctive excellence ; but the odds 

 against my accomplishing either of these hazardous and diflScult 

 \indertakings are very great indeed. Then again, I think my 

 father is averse to my being on the turf ; he often makes his 

 boast that, with the exception of a nomination to a cup at the 

 county races, the name of Raby has never been associated Avith 

 any gambling speculation whatsoever; and, although you are 

 all aware that I am now independent of him, and must succeed 

 to his estates, should I survive him, I should violate my feelings 

 by doing anything that he greatly dislikes.' 



' Bravo ! ' said Sir John. ' Bravo ! ' cried Hargrave. 

 ' Fox-hunting and the coach-box against all the racing in 

 the world ! ' resumed the former. ' Fox-hunting for ever ! ' 

 exclaimed Hargrave ; ' and I vote that we drink it in a 

 bumper.' The bumper was drunk, and the room rang with 

 applause. 



On the following day, this meeting closed with six well- 

 contested races for stakes amounting, in the whole, to £1100, 

 which, when looking back to the parent meeting at Burford, 

 when the horses of the Dukes of Marlborough and Beaufort, 

 Earls Abingdon and Ossory, Lords Ched worth and Oxford, 

 Messrs. Vernon, Button, Pigot, and Foley, all of high blood, 

 and names renowned on the turf, were contending, at heats, for 

 a fifty-pound plate, shows what rapid strides i-acing has made 

 within the last seventy years, and also how much the value of 

 money has diminished — at all events, the estimation of it 

 lessened by that description of persons. But nothing in the 

 shape of a race-meeting could have been more delightful than 

 Bibury was at the time in which our hero became a member 

 of the club, composed, as it was, of the first sporting aristocracy 

 of the day, with the heir-apparent to the crown at the head of 

 them, on his cropped roan hack, with merely a pad groom be- 

 hind him, with his surtout strapped to his back, and discoursing 

 with his associates in all the atfability of a private gentleman. 

 And a striking instance of this occurred, as regarded the hero 

 of our tale. 



' Introduce Mr. Raby to me,' said his Royal Highness to Lord 

 Solville, as he saw him approaching him on the course : ' he is 

 a fine young man, and I am glad that you have got him into 

 the club.' 



The introduction took place on the spot, and the Prince thus 



335 



