88 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER 



says the dark lady. "Did I not tell your honour 

 you could not lose ? " ' 



The same writer satirised the extravagant charges 

 made by the inhabitants of towns where race-meet- 

 ings are held. Had Nimrod lived to the present 

 time he would have used even stronger language on 

 this subject. Says he : 



' Some years since a French gentleman visited 

 Doncaster, and gave it the name of "the guinea 

 meeting" nothing without the guinea. "There 

 was," said he, " the guinea for entering the rooms 

 to hear the people bet. There was the guinea for my 

 dinner at the hotel. There was the guinea for the 

 stand for myself; and (0, execrable!) the guinea for 

 the stand for my carriage. There was the guinea 

 for my servant's bed, and (ah, mon Dieu /) ten guineas 

 for nay own, for only two nights ! " Now, we cannot 

 picture to ourselves monsieur at Doncaster a second 

 time ; but if his passion for the race should get the 

 better of his prudence, we only trust he will not be 

 so infamously robbed again.' 



But they have learnt to charge now at Chantilly 

 and other places on the Continent, so the wrongs 

 monsieur suffered at Doncaster are avenged. 



A Yankee generally considers himself the smart- 

 est man alive, but on the turf it sometimes happens 

 that his smartness fails him. At least so it would 

 seem from the following anecdote related by the late 

 Lord William Lennox : 



