248 KINGSCLERE 



with his false hair and artificial teeth (Mr. Wrench, Brooke 

 Street, sole inventor, where may be also obtained his 

 celebrated Arabian dentifrice), above eighteen months old. 

 Merry Wife (the mention of whom puts me in mind that 

 Mr. Tatters, the great Elizabethan critic, is about to publish 

 a new edition of Shakspere in halfpenny numbers) is also 

 extremely well ; and Vabalathus, formerly the property of 

 Lord Uxbridge — who was once heard to remark that 

 1 Christie started well, but Pipkins (Hat Repository, 

 496, Whitechapel, also a large assortment of children's 

 caps) stayed' — is in high feather. The two-year-olds, a 

 critical period either in man or horse, though the troubles 

 of the former at that interesting age have doubtless been 

 much alleviated by Mrs. Hagg's Soothing Syrup (Hagg 

 & Co., Kingsland-road, illustrated catalogues forwarded 

 on application) ; and Mr. Porter, who is in robust health, 

 mainly attributable to the constant use of the Syro- 

 Phcenician Hareskin (Cornelius Duffer, patentee), has 

 every reason to be satisfied with all the stock under his 

 care. 



' In those rather troublous times for both trainer 

 and tout, before the institution of training reports 

 was accepted as a necessary evil — for that is what 

 it has become — charges of assault made by the 

 training reporters against trainers were more than 

 once brought before the local bench. The most 

 serious of all the cases was that of Bray v. Jennings, 

 which was tried by Mr. Justice Hannen and a 

 common jury in the Bail Court at Westminster. 

 The plaintiff, John Bray, described as a horse- 

 watcher, or tout, sought to recover damages from 

 Mr. Thomas Jennings, trainer to the French stable 

 at Newmarket, for an assault. Shortly, the man 

 called Jennings a fool, and Tom rode at him (full 



