326 The Leather Plater. 



one good race over the flat in good company. She was just a year 

 older than our colt and stood exactly two inches higher. I there- 

 fore did not display much skill in match-making when I matched 

 our young horse at even weights against his, and more than one 

 friend told me so pretty plainly. However, as the race was p.p., 

 and all the money down, there was nothing to do but to run it out. 

 John Harrison had a capital exercising and training ground in some 

 large old meadows close by the Chequers, where many hunters 

 used to stand during the winter, for three good packs could be 

 reached from this little inn ; and about a month before the race we 

 sent the colt to stand at the Chequers, and take his exercise under 

 Frank's care. Both horses were in good hunting condition, so they 

 required little more than to be kept in good wind ; for, obedient to 

 an old principle, which was time-renowned in our county, whether 

 in hunting or steeple-chasing we always liked to run our horses 

 above their weight, and we never drew them fine. 



It was a singular thing, but our horse had not stood at the 

 Chequers more than a fortnight when Mr. Turner also brought the 

 captain's mare over to finish her exercise on these very meadows, 

 and to be in the neighbourhood of the course on which the match 

 was to come off. 



Now he had never fairly got over his little pique against me, and 

 he had always been most anxious, as he expressed it, " to square 

 accounts with me for buying the colt out of his hands." I'll do 

 Mr. Turner the credit to say that he was what old Doctor Johnson 

 so much liked, " a good hater," and he had formed a very masterly 

 plan for putting " our party in the hole," of which, however, even 

 his own master, the captain, was kept entirely in the dark. It was 

 scarcely likely that he and Frank should be under the same roof 

 without becoming acquainted, and although they did not exercise 

 their horses exactly together, still they both watched each other 

 pretty closely, and it took no long time for a man of Mr. Turner's 

 experience to see that, even if I had made the match right, and 

 had received the proper allowance of weight, there would have 

 been no certainty in it j but as the conditions now stood, they had 



