The Best Fourteen-Hander in England. 209 



anticipated some employment for the gentlemen of the Jong robe. 

 My friend was a man of few words, and his only remarks on the 

 affair were contained in two sentences. Above the paragraph he 

 had scrawled " Crumbs of comfort to the afflicted," and under it, 

 " Don't break your heart, old fellow. I fancy the little bolter would 

 have jusl suited her. / never liked her eye" I am far from a 

 vindictive man, but I must say that I read this letter with consider- 

 able satisfaction. 



My old friend could make nothing of the Evening Star, for she 

 was never to be trusted. He soon chopped her away, and she left 

 our country. 



It is quite time, I think, that I returned to Mr. Cox, whom I 

 left standing in the inn yard at Hollerton, about to explain to me 

 how I might, if I wished it, become possessed of the " best 

 fourteen-hander in England." 



The secret turned out to be this. A young farmer of his acquain- 

 tance (whom I also knew) had brought a pony to Hollerton to run 

 for the cup, which, as Mr. Cox said, would be very hard to beat, for 

 he knew the pony and all about her. The owner was a wild, 

 spendthrift young fellow, who had made away with everything, 

 including two or three good hunters j and, besides this little pony, 

 possessed scarcely a shilling or a shilling's worth in the world. 

 This pony he had himself bred, and had ridden to hounds j and, 

 although he had only just taken to racing her, she had won the 

 only two races for which she started. She had now been for a 

 short time in the hands of a trainer, who brought her down and 

 entered her for this cup, paying the entrance money himself j in 

 fact, the young farmer had no money, either to pay the entrance or 

 the trainer's bill. It seems that they had quarrelled that evening, 

 and the trainer turned round upon him and declared that unless his 

 bill was paid that night he would run the mare as his own next 

 day, keep the cup and stakes if he won them, or else scratch her, 

 and at all events stick to the mare till his bill was paid. The 

 young man was so enraged against the trainer for turning round 

 upon him at the last minute, that he declared to Cox that if he 



p 



