270 KINGSCLERE 



occasion when a neighbour, under favour, brought a 

 friend with him to look at the gallops, who happened 

 to be destitute of that description of organ. 

 According to Hood, the back of John Day the 

 coachman was too broad to be conceived by any 

 narrow mind. By a similar rule only a giant 

 mind could have had any conception of the 

 stature of the gentleman in question. He might 

 have been a direct descendant, throwing back 

 to that progenitor of ' Og, the King of Bashan,' 

 who remained ' of the remnant of the giants.' 

 The great horse, Common — and in Porter's 

 opinion he is one of the greatest — being passed in 

 review, the excessively long looker-on ventured to 

 disparage the magnificent animal, but not in the 

 hearing of the trainer. In ' an aside,' some minutes 

 later, John's neighbour said : ' What do you think 

 my friend says about Common ? ' Porter replied of 

 course that he had no idea, but without adding — as 

 he might have done, for it was in his thoughts — that 

 such an opinion was a matter of supreme indifference 

 to him. ' He says,' added his informant, ' that 

 Common is a monster.' ' Does he ? ' rejoined Porter, 

 with a glance at the critic. ' Well, monsters are 

 rather common on the Downs to-day.' Porter, it may 

 be explained, is not addicted to punning. Like Mary 

 Lamb's single exploit in that line, this quip of his 

 appears deserving of preservation, more particularly 

 in testimony to the jester's modesty, as it is preserved 

 at the instance of the trainer's amused neighbour. 

 When Dr. Wilberforce was Bishop of Winchester, 



