VII.—" ILEX " 



My first meeting with " Ilex " was full of pictur- 

 esque, if not romantic, incident. I was engaged 

 to ride at the Leicester Meeting in 1888, when, 

 walking round the paddock, I noticed a queer- 

 looking chestnut horse evidently there to run. 

 He seemed to have no neck, no quarters, and, 

 as an expert observed, with a rare flash of 

 insight, " He's not all quality — he's all belly." 

 The coarseness of the phrase may be excused 

 on account of its expressing the truth. He was 

 heavily bandaged, and — eager to be up and 

 doing, with a heart for any fate — I accepted the 

 mount on him in a selling hunters' steeple- 

 chase. Even so, if I had not promptly weighed 

 out for him, I should not have had the ride, 

 since a gentleman who owned horses in our 

 stable offered to pay me the equivalent of the 

 fee in the event of my consenting to stand 

 down. "You must want a 'fiver' very badly," 

 he said, " if you are willing to risk your neck 

 on a brute like that." My reply was to the 



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