386 



ashgill; or, the life 



Jarrow sportsman, being the only horseman that pre- 

 sented a respectable appearance after the race. The 

 game little daughter of Lecturer jumped off in front 

 in the deluging rain, was never headed, and won in a 

 canter. The remainder of the jockeys, so bespattered 

 with mud as to be unrecognisable, presented a most 

 ludicrous appearance when they returned to the 

 paddock. Drislane had backed the mare to win him 

 £1000. Seeing her in the paddock before the race, he 

 was so disappointed with her weedy appearance that 

 he hedged every farthing of his bet. When he beheld 

 her cantering home in front of the straggling field, his 

 feelings may be better imagined than described. " Ton 

 my w^ord, there's my luck agin," he exclaimed in 

 gruesome mood. The following morning he went to the 

 Newcastle railway station to see some of his horses off 

 home by the train. He paid the train money out of 

 his purse, which contained some thirty sovereigns, after 

 he had squared accounts. He then sauntered into the 

 town to look at the shops, his fancy taking to an article 

 which he resolved to take home to his wife, but on 

 looking for his purse, lo and behold, it was gone! 

 " 'Pon my word, there's my luck agin ! " While he was 

 gazing into the shop window in a most disconsolate 

 state, an Italian organ grinder, with a monkey, was 

 playing in the street behind him. Drislane's back was 

 to " Pongo," who, being in a playful mood, jumped on 

 to his shoulders, giving him such a fright that he, 

 followed by the monkey, went headlong through the 

 large plate-glass window of the shop. Tableau! 

 Drislane, cut and bleeding, on recovering himself, 

 nearly strangled the monkey, and, surmising that the 

 organ grinder was the author of the trick, administered 

 to him a sound drubbing. A great scene of excitement 



