180 SPORTING REMINISCENCES 



was cut to pieces and made into sausages we never 

 heard. 



I have a soft spot in my heart for the old man, 

 for when only seventeen I went to his yard and 

 saw there a lovely grey mare, for which he asked 

 me twenty-five. 



As it happened I had the money and bought 

 her, immediately put her in as wheeler in my 

 tandem, and drew her out to a picnic. She went 

 quietly though uneasily and when we got out 

 everyone admired her. Fifty to sixty, good 

 judges told me she was worth. 



Next morning there was no grey mare in my 

 stable — the old man came, murmuring apology. 

 He had found out that she was a demon and sent 

 her off to cab — though I begged to be allowed to 

 try her. 



If "a pedigree," as one of my friends says, "is 

 but a twisht of the tongue," if you buy a horse by 

 a certain sire and like it, everything in the stable 

 you took it from will be the same breeding for 

 years. 



** I have another gran' horse be Tipperary Boy 

 or Cherrystones as the case may be. Come out 

 and see it at onst." 



A lame groom is worth a fortune to a clever 

 horse dealer ; as he runs limping, the horse's limp 

 probably passes unnoticed. 



" Back and quarters are a necessity. Shoulders 

 are a luxury." Tom Donovan, the well-known 



