Did you ever Drive a Jibber down to a Fight F 261 



use of them ?" was the motto which he never failed to act up to. 

 No man had a better opinion of himself. " If / say so, it ivas so !" 

 used to be his invariable answer, if by chance he had been describing 

 a race to you, and you happened to hint that one of the very 

 jockeys who had ridden in it had given you quite a different version 

 of the aifair just before. He used to boast (what I believe was 

 true) that he could travel to every race meeting in England without 

 spending a shilling for "tlie wear and tear of his teeth j" and as, to 

 use an expression of his own, he was ^' no bread and cheese man," 

 this was a matter of some little consequence to him. There was 

 not a town in England which owned a racecourse where the 

 *^ Capten" had not a friend in some sporting farmer in the immediate 

 neighbourhood j and as he could sing a good song, tell the best of 

 stories, and as his presence always shed a cheerful ray of light upon 

 any company, he was welcome wherever he came. He rarely 

 stayed in a town, and would have made no exception in this 

 instance 3 but he had to meet a man in Cambridge that night to 

 settle some money matters with, so had driven up expressly from 

 Newmarket after the day's racing was over. 



I soon told him what my errand was, and directly he found out I 

 had hired a horse, he proposed that, instead of my riding down, as I 

 intended, we should put it into his new dog-cart (which, by the way, 

 he had just taken for a bad debt), he would be coachman, and we 

 would toddle down to Littlebury to breakfast, as comfortable as could 

 be — see the fight, and return to Cambridge in the afternoon. There 

 was nothing coming off at Newmarket next day which he cared 

 about seeing ; moreover, a day's rest, as he said, would do his cob no 

 harm, and besides which, he had a great desire to see the '' mill" as he 

 termed it. I had not the least objection to make to the proposed 

 arrangement : in fact, his company was a treat at all times ; and as 

 he knew a great deal more both of sporting men and sporting life 

 than I did, 1 felt rather flattered by his patronage than otherwise. 



I went down soon after to the stable to see my horse suppered- 

 up, and to tell tlie ostler the arrangements for the morning; besides, 

 to know if he had any objection to substitute the dog-cart for the 



