Gentlemen Riders 



refusing, and giving him one more reminder with the whip, 

 he flew the fence in grand fashion, and I took him all round 

 the course without a mistake. From that moment he never 

 gave me any further trouble." The sequel at the Aldershot 

 Meeting has already been related. 



Tilbury Nogo, the v/inner of the Infantry Steeplechase, 

 was again ridden by Mr. Meysey-Thompson at the Aldershot 

 Flat-race Meeting in the summer, and won his race with 

 some ease. Alas ! the judge, it was alleged, had been 

 lunching freely and mistook the colours, hoisting the wrong 

 number. In vain he was remonstrated with ; he obstinately 

 adhered to his opinion, and describing how the race was run, 

 stated Tilbury Nogo made the running till close home, and 

 then was passed and beaten, the real facts being the other way 

 about ! Pressure by senior officers was put on the owner of 

 Tilbury Nogo to give way, ** and make no row," which he too 

 good-naturedly did, and as the horse was entered in another 

 race he was once more sent to the post. This time he won 

 more easily than before, but it was unlucky for his jockey the 

 races had not been reversed, for he had backed him in the 

 first race for all he could afford, and had not a penny on 

 him in the second race. 



In 1 87 1, after getting fourth in the Grand Military Gold 

 Cup (run that year over the old Windsor course, which is 

 now built over, but where a very formidable jump — a particularly 

 unpleasant one for any one who had the misfortune to fall into 

 it — was the town drain) on the late Major- General Truman's 

 Vauban, military duties gave little further opportunity for race- 

 riding ; since immediately after the Grand Military Meeting, 

 Mr. Meysey-Thompson was ordered to go through a course 

 of musketry training at Hythe, and ere that was finished was 

 appointed adjutant of the second Battalion Rifle Brigade. 



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