THE INVASION OF PERFIDIOUS ALBION fi7 



easy to understand ; for the conditions of that race gave 

 immense advantages to horses ' bred on the Continent,' 

 as well as to ' pure Arabs ' and to horses ' bred in 

 America,' &c. And so Hervine had a considerable 

 ' pull ' in the weights, carrying but 6 st. 11 lbs. to the 

 7 St. 4 lbs. (car. 7 st. 6 lbs.) of the winner, Kingston, a 

 year her junior. 



Weight excepted, however, it must be owned that 

 Hervine had everything against her. She suffered, it is 

 said, from the sea voyage (for though horses cannot 

 vomit they can suffer terribly from 7nal de mer, to 

 the extent of dying of it, like the celebrated French 

 mare Gabrielle d'Estrees in 1867), and arrived in any- 

 thing but good trim at Goodwood. Then it was found 

 that her ' frequent pardner,' Mr Spreoty the jockey, 

 who was to have ridden her and who knew her ' little 

 ways,' was nearly 10 lbs. over weight, and the mount 

 had to be given to somebody else. This somebody was 

 certainly ' Tiny Wells,' than whom since Castor, Belle- 

 rophon, and ' that lot ' a better could not very well 

 (without prejudice of pun) have been obtained. But 

 even a Wells caimot divine by the light of nature or 

 learn at a moment's information the peculiarities of a 

 sensitive animal he has never before bestridden. Suffice 

 it to say that Hervine, the ' ever victorious filly,' could 

 not obtain so much as a place among such redoubtable 

 competitors as Kingston, Little Harry, Teddington, Her- 

 nandez, the great Newminster, and Stilton. So M. 

 Aumont and his friends were oblio-ed to content them- 

 selves with the reflection that in so illustrious a ' field ' 



'Tis better to have run and lost 

 Than never to have run at alL 



Howbeit the French were now beginning to ' burn,' 



r2 



