259 



CHAPTER X. 



A trainer on a lonely hill 



Will do a deed of mystery, 

 And 'scribes' will several columns fill, 



With that trial and all its history. 

 The trainer will be all surprise 



At the facts they have collected, 

 And the owner when they meet his eyes 



Will be equally affected." 



Sporting Life. 



word on Knavesmire Sir William Milner The Hunting Tragedy 

 on the Ure Drax Abbey Warping Harrogate Yorkshire Stock 

 and Hound Show at Wetherby Captain Gunter's Herd Farnley 



AMID the whirl and rattle of the present turf times, 

 when the secrets of a man's stable are pro- 

 claimed on the house-top almost before he knows them 

 himself, and touts send off telegrams far and wide the 

 instant a trial is won, it is a treat to hear a Yorkshire 

 elder have his say. Once set him going, with the full 

 consciousness that he has a sympathetic listener, and 

 he soon pierces into the bowels of the past, and re- 

 counts each loved recollection of " the horse and his 

 rider." He will tell you how a great jockey " got 

 into money," and rather let the cat out of the bag by 

 offering a rooo/. note instead of a ioo/. one in change 

 to the horse's owner on settling day ; how Bob Rids- 

 dale, who began as body footman to Lady Lambton, 

 made 3O,ooo/. only to lose every halfpenny of it again 

 in the ring ; of Colonel Cradock saying to Sam Chif- 

 ney in amazement as they gazed on the saddle con- 

 tortions of little Johnny Gray at a finish, " Is he 

 pricking, Sam, or is he pulling?" of a noble duke only 

 giving his jockey " a pony," when he had won the 



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