io6 STEEPLECHASING 



to have a day with the Bonehill Harriers, and the black 

 horse sent over for him to ride turnino: out to be lame, 

 Mr. Garnett put the Captain on The Chandler, and he 

 was carried so well during a brilliant five-and-twenty 

 minutes after a stout hare that on the way home Captain 

 Peel bought him by giving Mr. Garnett his black horse 

 and twenty guineas. Nor did the deal end there, for Mr. 

 Garnett not caring about the black horse. Captain Peel 

 took him back at the original price (twenty guineas), only 

 to sell him for sixty guineas a few days later to Captain 

 Cotton (afterwards Viscount Combermere) of the Royal 

 Horse Guards. The nett result was that not only did 

 Captain Peel obtain the good horse The Chandler for 

 nothing, but found himself with twenty guineas to the 

 good. 



During the greater part of the year 1842 The 

 Chandler was lame from a severe cut received in the 

 hunting-field, but becoming sound again he was for the 

 next three seasons Captain Peel's favourite hunter. It 

 was not until the year 1846, when the horse was ten 

 years old, that Captain Peel dreamed of trying what The 

 Chandler could do in a steeplechase ; but in that year 

 his owner sent him to Bradley, at Hednesford, to be 

 trained, and he ridden by his owner for the first time at 

 Birmingham ran second to Richard the First for a 

 sweepstakes, the winner to be sold for 300 sovereigns, 

 but had he not been carried so far out of the course by 

 one of the horses which bolted, he would almost certainly 

 have won. His next appearance was at Warwick for 

 the Hunt Cup, Captain Little had not then come upon 

 the scene, and as Captain Peel's aunt had just died The 

 Chandler was ridden by Captain Broadley, and whether 

 it was that the rider was weak, or that strange hands 

 upset the horse, the fact remains that he turned round at 

 too many of the fences, yet made short work of his eight 

 opponents, for he won in a canter by twenty lengths. 



