126 tfhe Trotter. 



to a second. This, however, I did not care a pin for. If she could 

 travel at that pace with twelve stone on her back (for I am certain 

 the old saddle weighed a stone), and in her present state, I fancied 

 that, with about ten stone on her, and in top condition, she would 

 be "hard to hold." I gave the man the price he asked, and a pound 

 for his trouble, and led the mare back to town, the proudest man in it. 

 I was forty miles from home. Not a soul but myself and friend knew 

 anything of the trial ; and " Now, my boys," I thought, " I'll drop on 

 some of you when I get home. You little think what's coming." Before 

 parting the man told me that they fancied she was by a thorough-bred 

 horse, out of a Welsh pony j that she had never been caught up 

 till six years old ; that he never found out she could trot till the 

 previous autumn 5 and that he had christened her " Patty Morgan." 

 He, moreover, gave me the following instructions which I was im- 

 plicitly to follow : always to ride her in a snaffle ; never use a whip 

 or spur, but get all out of her I could by shouting. I could, of 

 course, not catch her scream exactly, but after a few lessons, I man- 

 aged to make a pretty good imitation of it, and we parted. 



I have had a good many horses through my hands, but never one 

 about which I felt so anxious as this mare. I saw in her something 

 better than common, and I was rather at low water just then, not 

 having a trotter which was worth backing for a shilling. It is true 

 I had a tidy little punchy cob, a fair second-rater, but he had been 

 lately beaten so often that they had facetiously christened him " The 

 Drum," which is never heard except when it is beaten so they ex- 

 plained the pun. I dare say it was a very stale one ; that it was a very 

 poor one, I think the reader will allow ; anyhow, of course I never 

 could see the wit of it. However, " The Drum " might be put out 

 of commission now, and my new mare come forward to the sound 

 of kettledrums and trumpets. I think I visited her in her stable a 

 dozen times before I left the town, and I hired a man expressly to 

 lead her gently home, where she arrived on the evening of the next 

 day. The fellow had particular injunctions not to come up with 

 her till after dark -, and depend on it I was waiting for him on 

 the road when he did lead her up. By ten, Patty Morgan was 



