ii2 My First Steeple-chaser. 



bably never have been ours. The Vet. was in a high state of 

 excitement, and his bright-green coat and white hat could be seen 

 struggling through the thickest of the crowd to get up to the horse's 

 head 5 and he eyed the curious gazers with a fierce glance as they 

 crowded round the winner, and pertinently asked them, "What 

 they thought of the lame horse now ?" 



It was singular that on this very afternoon they buried poor Tom, 

 and as the shouts at the success of his old favourite were rending 

 the air on that racecourse, the solemn, measured knell of the passing 

 bell from a quiet little village church, nearly 300 miles distant, tolled 

 the last requiem of one who, a short week before, had fondly hoped 

 that those cheers would have been lavished on himself instead of a 

 stranger. 



Of course we attended the race ordinary at the Woolpack. The 

 chair was taken by one of the head men in the county, the dinner 

 was excellent, and all passed off capitally. We had lots of health- 

 drinking and speechifying. The Vet. broke down in returning 

 thanks to the winner, but came again further on in the evening and 

 astonished the company with a tremendous Yorkshire hunting song, 

 which was loudly applauded, and which I was very fearful would 

 be encored. The owner of the second horse, who had already been 

 beaten in Warwickshire by Tom, declared that the old horse had 

 won that day upon his merits, and that he always feared him, 

 although he did not say so. Not much money was lost. Our 

 horse was a good one for the bookmakers. The old butcher and 

 his friends stood well on him. I had not backed him for a shilling j 

 but the Vet. had managed to win fifty pounds, and as a good deal 

 of it was in pounds and fivers, it took him some trouble to collect. 

 But he carried away with him a trophy from Bideford, which he 

 valued even more than all the money, and this was a large roll of 

 the celebrated west of England drab, the identical stuff from which 

 Jem's trousers were built. He had ingratiated himself much in the 

 good butcher's favour, who gave him the cloth in return for the 

 receipt of the noted " inflammable iles." 



The stakes were paid over to us next morning. We gave Jem a 



