COMMONS STEEPLECHASES 31 



was the subject of much chaff among the 

 politicians interested in the race, and I hear 

 party feeling rather got the better of the 

 judgment of some two or three M.P.'s, as 

 some nasty things were said about Mr. 

 Flower, who is the last man living to do a 

 "sharp" thing. He had acted in good 

 faith, and made no secret that he had re- 

 christened his old hunter, Sultan, Home 

 Rule for the occasion. For a man of his 

 weight and years, on an old hunter, to cut 

 down a lot of young bloods over the Bicester 

 country was a performance that is not often 

 equalled. 



The following year, 1890, we went down 

 from Euston to Rugby, where I remember 

 many of us changed, and were most hospit- 

 ably entertained by Captain David Beatty 



