14° IRiDiUG IRecollcctions anO Umt Stories 



any liberties. When he was not quite right he 

 would sometimes say, " Don't mind me," but very 

 seldom. I have seen him ride some rare good races, 

 and I know John Osborne always thought him as 

 good at the finish as anyone he ever rode against. 

 Some good and funny stories are told about poor 

 Jem. Once at Ayr Snowden came to the scales to 

 weigh, and Mr. Tom Lawley said to me : 



" See how drunk he is : I don't think I ought to 

 weioh him out." 



I answered: "Oh, I think it's all right; I have 

 seen him as bad before." 



Presently they brought Snowden some blinkers to 

 weigh with, and put them on his lap as he was in 

 the scales. However, he had sense enouo-h to throw 

 them away, with the remark, " Here, bleend horse 

 and bleend jockey '11 never dee." 



On another occasion Snowden was asked not to 

 win by more than a neck, as it was a selling race, 

 and they wanted to buy the animal in tolerably 

 cheaply. Jem jumped off, made all the running, and 

 won by six lengths. The owner had to pay a good 

 bit to buy his horse back, and complained bitterly to 

 a friend of Snowden's. The latter went and told 

 him what was said, but all he remarked was, " Thou 

 tell him he ought to think himself lucky to win at 



