162 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



I may say here that though the " wines " after dinner 

 in one another's rooms were very convivial and pleasant, 

 these were never, in my experience, carried to excess, 

 and not even at a " bump " supper, though on these latter 

 occasions there might be wild and perfectly natural 

 hilarity. I never saw anyone really overcome by wine 

 at Oxford except the poet Swinburne, and that was 

 probably due to his ill-health. 



He was staying with the Master about the time I 

 am now dealing with, and an undergraduate named 

 J. R. Anderson had invited him to lunch one Sunday. 

 Swinburne speedily yielded to the inspiration of Bacchus, 

 and went to sleep in an arm-chair, breathing heavily. 

 Anderson became rather alarmed, and went out to consult 

 whomever he could find. It so chanced that he met me, 

 and I went with him to his rooms, where I saw the sleeping 

 poet, now snoring. I advised that he should not be 

 disturbed, and there he slept throughout the afternoon, 

 awaking barely in time to meander across the quad and 

 dine with the Master. What happened then I know not, 

 but Anderson got into trouble about it, though it was no 

 fault of his. 



During the Long Vacation in 1871 I purchased a big 

 thoroughbred horse named Drum Major from a vet. 

 named Lamb, at Shipton, not far from York. He was by 

 Drumour out of Presumption, stood about 16-1, and had 

 once been trained by William Day. Moreover, George 

 Thompson had won the Club Hunt Cup at York on him. 

 He made a noise and had dreadful joints, but Tom Scott 

 and I conceived the idea that we could train him round 

 the Coxwold town's pasture, with occasional gallops on 

 Hambleton, and possibly win even a Cesarewitch. I gave 

 26 for him. 



The sight of him when he was brought to Coxwold 

 struck awe into the heart of the village butcher, John 

 Batty, who owned a famous " leather-flapping " champion 

 named Brown Shales, for he thought of Drum Major as 

 a possible rival, little dreaming of our higher aspirations. 



