6 CHASING AND RACING 



religiously head to head. My primitive idea of 

 ** finishing *' was to let my mount have an absolutely 

 free rein. Under normal circumstances this would 

 have stopped him, and given victory to Castor (Pollux 

 was my mount), but in this case it did not affect the 

 result, which was a dead heat ; though both Ted and 

 myself stoutly claimed a head victory, and the stakes 

 of" one bob,** which had been agreed upon. 



Well, we just managed to get the poor " heavenly 

 twins " back to the seclusion of their respective boxes, 

 but that was about all. Needless to say that the 

 family barouche remained silent and inert in the 

 coachhouse for many a long day ; whilst the local 

 vet. had the time of his life. 



So ended my first race, which occurred during the 

 holidays, when I was a Harrovian. 



At Cambridge I devoted myself to the river, where 

 I had the distinction of creating a record, which so 

 far as I can ascertain, has never been lowered. 



Perhaps space will enable me to deal with my 

 exploits in the boats later on ; but for the moment, 

 I must ** cut cackle and come to the 'osses.'* 



I did a bit of hacking when up at Trinity ; but I 

 did not hunt, except on foot, with the college beagles. 

 Nor did I patronize '' The Grind ; '* but I had seen 

 " colours," and had heard the thunder of hoofs and 

 the crack of lethal catgut, even before I became a 

 member of the University ; to wit — when I was 

 coaching for the Trinity Matriculation with my kind 



