76 SPORTING REMINISCENCES 



it, and when a fox goes away the Derby roar is 

 nothing to the uneven chorus which arises. 



Watch if a horse refuses. Men and boys drop 

 from nowhere. While your heated bitterness is 

 simmering they are all around you giving help 

 and advice. 



" Clout him on the tail, Mikey. Draw the 

 kippin over the fat of him. Mind his heels man, 

 I tell ye. Keep him at it. Success. He'll do it. 

 He will not. He is a coward, I tell ye. He is in 

 to it. He is not." 



The furious rider has no further say. His 

 heart may ever fail when he sees the size of the 

 ditch and its depth and philosophically realises 

 that the refuser maddened by blows may jump in, 

 but the die is cast, on his tail or his head or his 

 legs that horse must jump. 



" Straighten him. Con Nolan. Beckon at him 

 then, the whilst 111 draw another blast of a sthick 

 on him. If he goes down then I tell ye it will 

 larn him, the bottom is boggy. Nolan's cow was 

 drounded there, till they had to kill her below to 

 save her." 



This as the refuser all but overbalances, and a 

 ditch never looks so appallingly alarming as when 

 a horse slides and quivers on its brink. 



" Have ye a few sthones, Pat Maguire ? There 

 now." 



Rattle, rattle go stones in a hat fearlessly 

 banged under your animal's very tail, whack and 



