a 14 The Best Fourteen-Hander in England, 



morning I was gratified when I came out into the yard to see him and 

 the trainer in conversation. This proved that the party belonging to 

 my new mare were still in the town. A little farther up the yard I 

 recognised Mr. Cox, holding his head under a pump, the handle of 

 which an ostler was plying most vigorously. When he joined us, 

 his face shone like the rising sun. He confidentially informed us that 

 he had taken rather too much brandy-and-water on the preceding 

 evening, but the company was really so excellent that he was a 

 little off his guard. And he further told us that the day's sports were 

 to commence with a match between himself and the notorious Ben- 

 digo — who was then barely past his prime — to throw a cricket -ball, 

 kick a football, and hop loo yards for io/.,the best of the three events. 



We went then to look at Bessy Bedlam — and she was worth 

 looking at ! She had but one eye, and a head like a fiddle, a ewe 

 neck, a goose rump, and a thin rat-tail 3 but such hind-quarters, 

 chest, and legs, that my old friend swore that " she looked exactly 

 as if she had been built by contract, and that the builder had taken 

 so much time about the legs and quarters, that he was obliged to 

 finish off the top part in a hurr}^" She had, moreover, a drooping 

 ear on her blind side , and when I looked her over, I felt gratified 

 with one reflection — that if I did not bring the handsomest pony 

 to the post that day, I should at least bring the most remarkable- 

 looking one. 



We were next introduced to the jockey ; and if the appearance 

 of the mare was striking, that of the lad who was to ride her was 

 no less so. He was about nineteen, but looked just like a little old 

 man of fifty. He was what we might term an '*^ old-man boy," 

 and evidently one of the shrewdest and downiest of his class. He 

 had a strong Jewish cast of countenance, and an enormous hook 

 nose ; and when he turned and looked me full in the face to 

 answer a question, I discovered that, like the mare, he also had but 

 one eye : but such an eye ! I would not have been an hour in that 

 lad's company for something ; for I felt, when that eye was upon 

 me, that the boy could read my inmost thoughts as plainly as 

 If they were written on my face. 



