INSTALLED AT CANNON HEATH 17 



over, and at the end of his apparently somewhat 

 amused inspection said, ' Why, you are surely not 

 the John Porter mentioned here ? You are only a 

 boy.' ' The boy,' without deeming it desirable to 

 say anything about his age, declared that he was 

 the person referred to, and at the same time assured 

 Sir Joseph, with modest firmness, that he would not 

 regret it if he placed his horses under his — 'the boy's' 

 — care. The actual words were, 4 Give me the chance, 

 Sir Joseph, and I think I can manage them.' ' Very 

 well,' replied the Baronet. ' I understand you are 

 going to Liverpool ; call on me here on your return.' 

 Possibly further inquiries were made in the mean- 

 time — the object of them is unable to say, but thinks 

 it extremely likely — and in due course the youthful 

 applicant for the important post of private trainer to 

 Sir Joseph Hawley paid his second visit to Eaton 

 Place. That was on the Saturday in the same week. 

 Without further parley Porter was laconically 

 desired to be ready to accompany his future master 

 to Cannon Heath ' the day after to-morrow.' They 

 journeyed into Hampshire, and together made an 

 inspection of the stables at Cannon Heath, which, 

 with the adjoining premises, the trainer, whose 

 phrenological bump of ' order ' is abnormally 

 developed, found in a deplorable condition — weeds 

 flourishing all over the yards, cobwebs hanging 

 about the stables, and the mangers looking as if they 

 had not been washed out since the day they were 

 first used. This unsatisfactory state of things did 

 not, of course, represent poor Manning's habitually 



c 



