Captain S. F. Lee-Barber 



done, Barber, that was a close shave and no mistake ! ' whilst 

 a noble lord, who had been having a baddish time, and had 

 ^1500 on Ireland, remarked with a very white face, as I was 

 unsaddling, ' I cant understand why you kept on riding ! you 

 looked beat to the world half a mile from home ! ' 



" Luckily (though I had had little or no horse exercise 

 for some time) I had been working hard in London, rowing 

 every day, and walking and running round the Park, doing 

 fifteen to twenty miles every day, and sparring for half an 

 hour three times a week, so I was very fit, for which I was 

 thankful, as otherwise I should never have won, I feel convinced. 



" Sticking to it as I did, bears out a theory which is a good 

 thing to act up to, especially at Liverpool, and in a fast run 

 race, which is that although a horse may be leading you easily 

 some distance from home, there is always a possibility of his 

 ' cracking,' and a horse with a turn of speed may have sufficient 

 left in him to squeeze home." 



Apropos of the nickname by which he is familiarly known 

 to his friends. Captain Lee-Barber tells a capital story. 



A noble Duke, a popular racing baronet, a gallant colonel, 

 and himself were playing cards one night at the Rooms at 

 Newmarket, after one of the meetings, and the first named, 

 who was a guest for the week at the house of a well-known 

 lady of title, being bantered by his noble hostess at breakfast 

 as to the cause of his return at half-past six in the morning, 

 replied that he had been playing cards at the Rooms with 

 three very agreeable young men — who they were he hadn't 

 the slightest idea ; but they addressed each other as *' Tops," 

 " Putty," and " The Shaver," and but for the last-named having 

 to attend a prize fight at six o'clock, and afterwards ride in 

 three or four exercise gallops, and so broke up the party, he 

 — the Duke — would probably have been there still. 



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