In the Off-Season 2 7 1 



The long purse is, we know, the key to 

 most of the good things in this life, and, 

 provided a man can " stand the racket," not 

 much difficulty need be experienced in getting 

 suitable horses ; well-known performers are 

 sent up, for various reasons, to Tattersall's 

 and Aldridge's, and one can follow them 

 there ; dealers there are in plenty who will 

 give a fair trial over fences, both in the 

 vicinity of London (" half-an-hour from the 

 Marble Arch," if we are to put implicit faith 

 in the advertisement columns of the "dailies") 

 and across a natural country, a little further 

 away from the great metropolis. But we 

 must not go there thinking of forty and 

 fifty pounders, you know ! Assuming, how- 

 ever, that we have backed the winner of the 

 Cesare witch, or that our great-aunt has just 

 bequeathed us a hundred or two, and in leav- 

 ing this ''vale" has thus enabled us to mount 

 ourselves in another, e.g., that of Aylesbury, 

 to wit ; well, then, there is no pleasanter 

 way of spending a crisp, bright October after- 

 noon than chartering a smart hansom at the 



