SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



" Well," said he, " I've a good stake on Valentine, 

 but I shall save it on yours." 



Vexatious won by a neck from Professor Anderson, 

 with Valentine a bad third. Mr. Pry or was naturally 

 a bit obliged to me for saving him his money, and 

 did not mince words of congratulation. 



** H'm," I remarked, " Captain Hawkesley takes a 

 very diiferent attitude. He passed me a minute ago 

 as though I had been his greatest enemy on earth." 



" He can only blame his own obstinacy," Mr. 

 Pryor conunented. For three years the Captain 

 " nursed his wrath to keep it warm," as though I 

 were the party at fault. Assuredly he had lost a 

 deal of money, but he risked his stake with his 

 eyes open. However, the more you try to persuade 

 some people for their good, the more they are upset 

 when, things eventuating your way, they are placed 

 in the wrong. In the end the Captain came round, 

 shook hands, and confessed he had only himself to 

 blame. 



The late Harry Hall, of Spigot Lodge, was, if at 

 times a man of sardonic humour, never a lovable 

 creature, and I have heard him boast that he cared 

 for nothing on the earth, under the earth, or over 

 the earth. He and I had a "passage of arms" in 

 1893, after Golden Drop had won, in startling style, 



275 3 



