158 The Trotter. 



satisfied till we drove down to the Woolpack on the appointed 

 night, drew up articles, and staked the money in the landlord's 

 hands. However, when I read over the articles to him next 

 morning, he observed, " Ah ! that looks like business : and now, 

 sir, I think if I was you I should send over for Mr. Jones and hear 

 what he says about it." 



Mr. Jones was a small country trainer who lived a short distance 

 from us, on the edge of what was even then called " the forest," 

 although all traces of forest land had been long swept away, and 

 corn grew in glades where a couple of centuries ago herds of red 

 deer browsed at will under oaks coeval with the Druids. He was 

 a great man at all our little country meetings, as trainer and jockey, 

 and perhaps there were few men in England at that day who could 

 bring a trotter to the post more fit, or ride him better when there, 

 than this Mr. Jones. 



He was a very respectable steady man, a man on whose word 

 you could always rely, and in whom implicit confidence could be 

 placed. His dress and whole appearance was peculiar a dash of 

 the nag with the pulpit. The low, broad-brimmed hat, white 

 neckcloth, and black surtout, always buttoned up to the throat, 

 summer and winter, gave him rather a clerical look ; while the neat 

 drab kerseys, and light jockey boots or long drab gaiters, smelt 

 of the stable. He was a little, wiry, attenuated, cadaverous-looking 

 old man, of whom Mr. West once facetiously observed on Notting- 

 ham race course that he looked " for all the world just as if he had 

 come out of his grave for a glass of cold water, and could not find 

 his way back again" a remark which Mr. Jones never forgot or 

 forgave. He knew a horse well, could easily get up at a little over 

 8st., was an excellent judge of pace, a very fair rough-race rider, 

 and in figure and style very much resembled " Auld Tommy Lye," 

 especially when mounted. He had both ridden and trained for me 

 before, and I had every confidence in him. 



I sent a special messenger over for him directly (I had no fear of 

 his being "retained" on the other side, because I knew his ani- 

 mosity against Sam), and about noon he rode up. He was a man 



