AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 1 1 



friend " came to my aid, and, with his experience, why 

 should I not get on cleverly ? A horse was going for 

 nothing, my friend was on the alert, made the discovery, 

 and I bought him for five hundred. He was a dead 

 bargain, quite a dark one, and, in proof of the same, the 

 odds against him were thirty-five to one ; but, as I was 

 informed, there lay the beauty of the thing. 



As the races drew near, I discovered that my book was 

 what the legs call a queer concern. I had picked up the 

 halt and blind as first favourites and betted accordingly. 

 My dark one proved a roarer, and my faithful friend 

 recommended me to hedge immediately, and I did so, 

 as the result will tell. 



Off went the horses ; Phenomenon, my courser, in 

 the chance medley got a splendid start, but from his 

 pace the spectators alleged that he was hamstrung. 

 In three hundred yards he was passed by the slowest 

 of the bad ones, and before the leading horses reached 

 the distance, everything I was interested in was beaten 

 fairly off. All I had left for consolation under this 

 accumulation of disappointment was the smart hedge 

 that I had so prudently effected before starting. 



The settling-day came ; I was at Tattersall's and so 

 were my winners to a man ; I disbursed five thousand 

 to divers legs with and without titles, and furthermore 

 disposed of the celebrated horse Phenomenon for fifty 

 pounds. But where was the worthy gentleman with 

 whom I had hedged half my losses ? Till four o'clock 

 I waited in painful expectation, and at that hour, he being 

 still invisible, I ventured to hazard an enquiry, and was 

 favoured with the comfortable tidings that my absent 

 friend was a broken wine merchant, and that he had 

 levanted the evening of the race. 



