2 1 6 In Scarlet and Silk 



steeplechase riders I ever contended against, 

 told me himself that oftentimes, and especially 

 before the start of a race, he " suffered the 

 tortures of the damned." Now if "funk" 

 had been the true seat of the disease, surely 

 that feeling would have endured until he 

 had landed in safety over the last fence. But 

 it did not. Directly the field was despatched 

 upon its journey all nerve troubles vanished, 

 and he was not only bold, but one of the 

 coolest -headed men I ever saw ride. What 

 is the explanation ? 



Again, where no question of personal risk 

 enters into one's calculation, as, for example, 

 in riding a race on the flat, why, in the name 

 of all that is wonderful, do we sometimes feel 

 an increased action of the heart, and a sensa- 

 tion of profound wretchedness before mount- 

 ing ? or more extraordinary still, why do we 

 feel it, say at Kempton to-day, and not at all 

 at Sandown to-morrow ? Why do we say to 

 ourselves that it is " really time we gave up 

 race riding" this week, whilst in the next 

 we laugh to scorn the idea of resigning the 



