4 CHASING AND RACING 



adventurous spirit had constrained him to enHst. An 

 experience by the way which, later on, served him in 

 good stead, when he and I were sporting the gorgeous 

 ** outfit " of the Duke of Cambridge's Hussars 

 (M.Y.C.). I now installed him Secretary of State, 

 Agent General, Chief of the Staff, Q.M.G., Fidus 

 Achates, and boon companion — a sort of personal Pooh 

 Bah, in fact. Like myself, there was nothing in his 

 pedigree which suggested horsemanship as a likely 

 recrudescence ; but assuredly he was obsessed with the 

 desire to disport himself in this direction ; though his 

 too solid flesh forbade dreams of glory on the race- 

 course. 



I must go back a bit to describe our first equine 

 adventure. 



In our stables at my beloved home. Moat Mount, 

 situated on the summit of Highwood Hill — the 

 highest point of the county of Middlesex — there were, 

 besides Tommy and Pet, the bay and grey cobs, 

 driven by '* The Dads,*' a pair of " camels," whose 

 duty it was to drag the family barouche, containing 

 my mother, when she paid formal calls on the neigh- 

 bouring " quality '' (she was mostly of Irish blood, 

 with a dash of French) or when she devoted two and 

 a half weary hours to divine worship on the Sabbath. 

 These ponderous '' coach horses " were named respec- 

 tively Castor and Pollux, and it was difficult to tell 

 " t'other from which," either in appearance, pace and 

 action (alike inconspicuous) or temperament. 



