ORMONDE 113 



question : ' Hullo, guv' nor, what have you got 

 there ? ' The matter-of-fact reply ' Ormonde ' was 

 too much for cabby. He was nonplussed for 

 want of a crushing objurgation. All he said was, 

 1 Garn ! Who are you a-gettin' at? ' Conjecture is 

 left to busy itself with the nature of the reception 

 of Ormonde by the distinguished party of guests 

 who had been invited to meet him in the gardens 

 of Grosvenor House. He was fed with sugar 

 and flowers (orchids probably), and otherwise re- 

 galed with the daintiest of inequine viands ; he 

 made himself agreeable to everybody ; and then, 

 the reception over, he went back to Kingsclere as 

 contentedly as he had left. His last race was a 

 holiday gallop for the Imperial Gold Cup at the 

 Newmarket July Meeting, when they laid 100 to 

 3 on him. He won it by a couple of lengths, with 

 his stable companion Whitefriar second, and Lord 

 Hastings's Lovegold, in remotish attendance, third. 

 As the fact falls in conveniently here, it may be 

 stated that at that time Ormonde was under regular 

 treatment for roaring. The well-known sporting 

 writer, signing himself Nathaniel Gubbins, in describ- 

 ing a visit which he paid to Kingsclere, after crediting 

 Porter with the mild assurance that Ormonde had 

 ' as much electricity in him as would light a town,' 

 says, ' Anon we return to our Ormonde, to see the 

 process of galvanizing the horse of the century. 

 Two applications, each of five minutes' duration, are 

 given daily, and the force is increased or diminished 

 as needs be. It takes five human beings to conduct 



