HERMIT AND ISINGLASS 



with the stick,' as I knew that the horse was 

 rather lazy. This the boy did, but with no effect. 

 All at once Hermit gave a tremendous cough, and 

 nearly fell down, at the same time smothering me 

 with blood. I pulled him up, or, rather, he pulled 

 himself up, and walked him across to the Bird 

 Cage, still bleeding. We cleaned his nose and 

 mouth as well as we could, and took him the 

 back way home. 



"Funnily enough, Sam Rogers, who was really 

 lookino' after Hermit, never saw what had taken 

 place. The accident happened after we had passed 

 where he stood ; but Vespasian, who was galloping 

 behind, broke a blood-vessel just opposite to him,' 

 and Sam called the boy who was riding everything 

 he could — and he could say something — for not 

 pulling the horse up, and went in with him to 

 Barrow's the veterinary surgeon's, not knowing 

 what had happened to Hermit. I afterwards 

 took a letter from Captain INIachell to Mr. 

 Chaplin, who was in London unwell at the time. 

 On my way to town I saw Captain Hawkesley, 

 Avho, I found out, knew all alDOut the mishap, 

 although we thought it was a secret. As soon as 

 I arrived in London I went straight to Mr. 

 Chaplin's house. He read the letter, saying that 

 it was a bad job, and thought the horse ought to 

 be scratched at once. I immediately said, ' No ; 

 I shouldn't scratch him, as there can be no good 

 in doing that.' Thus the matter went on. In 

 the meantime. Captain Hawkesley sent to me to 

 ask if I would ride The Rake, who was then the 

 first favourite for the Derby. I told him I was 

 retained by Mr. Chaplin and was powerless myself. 

 He then asked INIr. Pryor to write a letter to JNIr. 

 Chaplin, asking him to give me up to him. The 

 Squire wrote back to say he had a lot of money 



239 



