160 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



with Tom Milvain. All of them were more than useful 

 with the gloves at that period, and for a good deal later 

 if occasion demanded. 



I had got through Smalls all right in my second term, 

 and all was going well or appeared to be so. The craze 

 for fox-terriers was on the increase, and others besides 

 the Rugby fraternity participated. I provided Vicars 

 with a nice little bitch named Violet. Arthur Blackwood, 

 another new friend, became possessed of Blister, just a 

 fair sort of dog, but given to cat-worrying at inopportune 

 times, and there werp many other dog-owners. Most 

 of us kept them with an old man named Hedge, some- 

 where between the Schools and New College. Hedge 

 was the maker of a certain lotion which he declared was 

 a sovereign remedy for all injuries to horses or dogs, and 

 we came to look upon him as a high authority on racing 

 because he occasionally went to Woolcot's at Beckhampton, 

 taking bottles of his lotion, and used to come back with 

 what passed for stable information. 



It was quite enough if he had only seen a horse leave 

 the stable to go to a meeting. " I seed him go," he would 

 say, " and he won't be far off winning." 



The terriers used to live in barrels in a yard at Hedge's, 

 and he did them well ; but his racing tips were usually of 

 the worst. There came a time when he saw Gang Forward 

 pass the station on his way to Doncaster, and told his 

 friends that there was the Leger winner, but Gang Forward 

 never started for the race and Hedge's repute as a tipster 

 from that time began to wane. 



There was a man in a part of Oxford, near Port Meadow, 

 who kept hundreds of rats in large cages in his back 

 yard, and his kitchen was so fitted that a convenient rat 

 pit could be made in one of the corners, where two boards, 

 about four feet deep, hinged to and folded against the walls, 

 and could be pulled out and joined together at the outer 

 angle, thus forming a square enclosure, of which the 

 walls furnished two sides. Rats at sixpence each were 

 supplied in any numbers that you might desire for the 



