284 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 
daughters for them, turn up their seraphic noses at the 
rude contrivances that rejoiced at so recent a period in 
the appellation. About the field were horsemen innu- 
merable, and upon the adjacent hills were thronged the 
less fortunate spectators, who could muster neither 
wheeled vehicle, nor four-footed beast for the occasion. 
The scene was one of animation, and to my young im- 
agination,—of unsurpassable brilliancy. a 
We had not been long upon the ground before we as- 
certained that something was amiss. Every body wore an 
uneasy and fidgetty aspect, the cause of which was soon 
discovered. By the rules of the Jockey Club, it re- 
quired zhree entries to make a race. There was no 
walking over the course, in those days. Every purse 
taken, had to be won gallantly of at least two competi- 
tors. Only two horses had been entered, and the sport 
seemed about to be broken up for want of a third. 
There were other nags of “lineage pure” in attendance, 
but their owners were afraid to start them against the 
celebrated Blannerhassett, and the no less celebrated 
Epaminondas. 
In this strait the concourse of assembled people 
grew ill-natured, and even the ladies pouted in sore 
disappointment. The owners and trainers of the re- 
nowned coursers, which were held apart for want of a 
go-between, vaunted the performances of their respective 
nags and looked daggers at the judges, whose conscien- 
tious scruples would not. permit the purse to be taken, 
