ORGANISED STEEPLECHASING 43 



of the scrimmage, but the horse lay groaning on the 

 ground. This somewhat severe lesson proved the 

 making of him, for when Jem Mason next rode him 

 with Mr. De Burgh's stag-hounds, he turned his head 

 from nothing, and Jem beat everybody so decisively 

 that on the way home Lord Ward offered 300 guineas 

 for the horse. He had, however, been anticipated by 

 Lord Chesterfield, who bought him from Tilbury (who 

 was in ignorance of the horse's latest performances) for 

 120 guineas. 



It was about this time that the London and North- 

 Western line from London to Birmingham was in course 

 of construction, and it cut across Dove House Farm. 

 The railway people put up posts and rails to mark 

 the fences of the permanent way, but the only useful 

 purpose they served in the eyes of Jem Mason was 

 to provide him with excellent leaping bars for his 

 horses ! 



The nerve which enabled this great horseman to ride 

 his half-made horses at timber stood him in excellent 

 stead on the steeplechase course, and to what extent 

 this was the case was manifest at Stratford-on-Avon, 

 where he rode Lottery against Decider, Railroad, and 

 several other horses. Those who were to ride in the 

 race were walking over the ground to be traversed when 

 they came to a bullfinch of great strength and a locked 

 gate. One of his opponents asked Jem whether he 

 would have the fence or the gate.'* His reply was 

 " I'll be hanged if I am going to scratch my face, 

 for I am going to the Opera to-night ; I shall have 

 the gate, forty miles an hour, and defy any man in 

 England to follow me." He was as good as his word 

 in the race. On his way to the brook he was piloted 

 by old George Dockeray, who, on ahead, signalled, by 

 means of a white handkerchief, where Jem was to take 

 it, and he, getting over without a scramble, won, and 



