DANES BURY 201 



When I took the dockyard contract, in conjunction 

 with the person I have before spoken of, we thought it 

 best for each to provide his moiety of the number of 

 horses required, as we could not agree Avith the late 

 contractors about the purchase of their stock ; con- 

 sequently, I went to the different fairs to buy whatever 

 desirable animals might happen to be in the market. At 

 one of these — Rumsey — my friend and I had been 

 toG-ether: and here an incident occurred, of a serio- 

 ludicrous nature, which I cannot help recording. After 

 dining at the ordinary with farmers, horsedealers, inn- 

 keepers, &c., &c., I proposed driving to Stockbridge, that 

 is, to the stables of old John Day, grandfather of the Avell- 

 known trainer of this name — the place is now, I believe, 

 called Danesbury — as I had a horse there in training that 

 was about to run at our garrison races. 



Accordingly, we started in the evening, and, in passing 

 through the water that crosses the road at Somborne, 

 overtook two " g-ents," whom we remembered to have 

 seen imbibing considerably at the White Horse, at 

 Rumsey. They suddenly stopped to allow their horses to 

 drink. In passing, the step of my gig just touched the 

 wheel of theirs, when, from the slight collision, the gent 

 on the driving side — a very corpulent man — tumbled out, 

 headforemost, into the little stream. 



My companion said not a word, nor did I, but kept on 

 at a good pace, which I afterwards — upon his looking 

 round and saying, " They are coming at a full gallop " — 

 improved. We had just gained the top of a hill, Avhere 

 the declining sun shone directly on the chalk that had 

 been excavated in the bank, when my horse suddenly 



