My First Steeple-chaser. 105 



jockey who had so often steered him to victory, for, after we had 

 carefully locked the door and began to strip him, the old fellow 

 kept turning his head every now and then in that direction, as 

 though he expected to see it open every minute and poor Tom walk 

 in. However much he might be out of place in the crowd that 

 thronged the bar-passage, the Vet. was " all there" in that loose 

 box, as he threw off the " bright-green cutaway," and proceeded 

 carefully to examine the horse. More than a dozen times was his 

 hand slowly passed. down that treacherous hind leg, and severe was 

 the cross-examination which the lad underwent as to how the horse 

 fed, how he galloped, &c. The examination was apparently satis- 

 factory, for, after he had given some directions about fresh bandages, 

 and to have the horse ready for gentle exercise at three in the after- 

 noon on the race-course, he remarked, on leaving the stable, " If 

 we had but poor Tom here to ride him, we should be very near 

 pulling through." 



When we returned to the inn to lunch we were regarded as 

 objects of curiosity by the assembled crowd. Our horse had been 

 standing there for three days, and beyond his being the property of 

 a midland farmer, and that a country jock was coming down 

 expressly to ride him, nothing was known about him. Nothing 

 could be got out of the lad who looked after him he was too well 

 tutored. The idea of sending a lame horse (for he was most 

 decidedly a little lame, although it was hardly perceptible) to run 

 for such a stake and in such company, added to the mystery, which 

 was in no degree lessened by the countryfied appearance of his 

 owner and jockey, as we were taken to be. 



When we sat down to lunch, however, a little of the mystery 

 was cleared up, for one or two jockeys had now arrived who had seen 

 the horse run in Warwickshire ; and it was whispered about that, 

 notwithstanding all his lameness, he would prove to be a very dan- 

 gerous outsider. But the strangest thing was nobody had yet 

 seen his old jockey. It was well known that the man who rode 

 him in Warwickshire was always in the habit of riding him, and 

 Tom was personally known to man^ of the jockeys, which we were 



