158 Saddle and Sirloin. 



their guide, to " teer doon a fox lang afore these grand 

 bred uns they mak soe much talk of have f tin him" 



After this we paid our tribute to the district's taste 

 for iron, and went for a little change among the com- 

 peting blacksmiths. Each of them had to forge a fore 

 and hind foot shoe out of scrap iron, to dress the fore 

 foot, and to fix the fore shoe only ; and a striker was 

 allowed in forging the shoes. A few village adherents 

 had got round some of the men, and gradually worked 

 them up into steam arm pace. One aspiring Tubal 

 Cain strung up his nerves to " do or die" in fifteen 

 minutes, and when the last nail was rivetted, he flung 

 himself, with grimy beads of perspiration starting from 

 his brow, quite melodramatically among a knot of his 

 supporters, with the ejaculation : " Hell be a queer y un 

 who licks me" We felt quite an interest in him after 

 such a Pogram defiance, and eventually discovered 

 him with the second prize ticket in his button-hole. 

 Still he did not conceal his chagrin that " a slow 28- 

 minute fellow" should have beaten him. The ruck 

 were much more demonstrative. One of them, who 

 said that he was " highly commended," shook his fist 

 quite savagely at his fellow, and said, " Dang ! Pll 

 have you for afi-pun note ony day" and desired to strip 

 then and there, and show his muscle gratis. 



Two years glide by and we are once more passing 

 Yarm, its high-level bridge and its orchards, on a fine 

 August morning on our way to another Cleveland 

 Show at Redcar. Mr. Booth's Beechwood, after 

 winning at Grantham the day before, has been 

 scratched for the hunter prize and has left the train 

 at Northallerton, and his owner elects to stand on the 

 Van Galen gelding. There was no Preston Junction 

 hitch this year, but still sixteen miles an hour seems 

 our average rate of progression. On our right is the 

 new Stockton racecourse, commanding that " view of 

 the mineral hills," which the committee impressed so 

 much on race-horse owners in their Weatherby Book 



