Gentlemen Riders 



informing them that an uncle had died ; and though it was 

 a matter of congratulation in one sense, this sporting band of 

 brothers were certainly entitled to sympathy in another, inas- 

 much that all their plans were upset by the occurrence. 



After an animated discussion they decided to run Cloister, 

 who was to be ridden by Mr. Babington, i6th Lancers, whilst 

 they themselves, out of respect to their deceased relative, made 

 themselves conspicuous by their absence from Punchestown. 

 At the last moment, however, their "inclinations" proved too 

 many for their scruples, and down went all the mourners, 

 "surreptitious loike," as the soldier servant of one of them put 

 it — after every one else had gone, and lay down behind the big 

 double to see the race. 



Cloister hit the big wall, cutting his knees very badly, and 

 all but came down, but he won all right, and " then," says 

 Captain John, ''we all sneaked off'' 



According to Charles Lever, a favourite toast in Ireland in 

 his time was, " Your health and Inclinations," and it should 

 certainly have been drunk on this occasion by the " Weasel " 

 and his friends. 



Major Orr-Ewing won another Grand Military at Punches- 

 town on a mare of his own, and the victory was all the more 

 creditable, for not only was the day a fearfully wet one, but the 

 mare an awful brute, being bad-tempered and a worse jumper. 

 How her owner won on her, indeed, was a mystery to all his 

 friends. 



At the soldiers' meeting at Sandown, in 1889, he had a 

 somewhat unpleasant experience. Riding Fatherland, a real 

 good horse belonging to himself, in the Grand Military Hunters' 

 Steeplechase, the " Weasel " lost both stirrup-irons at the last 

 hurdle, with the result that, after a desperate race, " Roddy " 

 Owen just did him on the post by a short head. The horse 



452 



