14 Random RkcolIvKCTions of the 



fellow however, a small farmer and a bit of a 

 trainer, living near Oakham, who was too 

 much for the more unsophisticated tillers of 

 the soil, and frequently won the race. But 

 report said that his horses had the advantage 

 of blue blood, and couldn't claim a hair of 

 the tail as fulfilling the stipulations of 

 humbler parentage. They had to jump over 

 wattled hurdles, and accidents were numerous ; 

 one horse, I think belonging to Mr. Harrison, 

 of Garthorpe, when holding a long lead into 

 the straight, falling and breaking his neck, 

 the rider escaping with a shaking. Why the 

 wattle should have been more conducive to 

 accident than furze or whin of the present 

 time I am unable to account. There were 

 two days' racing, and on the second the 

 farmers' horses, that had been handicapped 

 by the stewards on the preceding evening, 

 were ridden by gentlemen members of different 

 clubs. The result was often repeated by the 

 same horse winning again, and Lord Wilton, 

 Mr. Osbaldeston, Mr. Erskine, Capt. White, 

 Capt. Percy Williams, Mr. H. S. Thompson, 

 Mr. Scobell, Mr. Sadler, and others would 

 handle their mounts in more artistic fashion 

 than their less experienced yeomen jockeys. 



