THE GRAND NATIONAL. 39 



Since the preceding year, sundry alterations had 

 been niade. There was then one held of turf on 

 leaving" the course, and one previous to entering' it. 

 In the first of these the turf had been pared off by 

 the plough, in the second by the spade, and the 

 square lumps of turf and soil being loosely 

 scattered about, made it as uneven and distressinii- a 

 piece of ground for horses to gallop over as is 

 possible to conceive. 



Every other field in the line was fallow, with the 

 exception of the two previous to reaching Becher's 

 Brook, which were of wheat. Several of the rails 

 on the banks were removed, and the line was on the 

 whole a decidedly easy one. 



LIntil his performance on the present occasion 

 the winner was a horse quite unknown to fame, his 

 owner and rider, Mr, Loft, a well-known Lincoln- 

 shire sportsman, having, as a matter of fact, bought 

 him out of Northamptonshire for fifty sovereigns 

 only twelve months previously. A strong, short- 

 legged, compact, rather coarse-looking animal, his 

 general rotundity gave him the appearance of being- 

 fat and out of condition. That such was not the 

 ca.se, however, was amply proved by his performance 

 in the race. 



On the whole, he was probably a lucky horse to 



