104 Indian Racing Reminiscences. 



a half-caste jockey if he was not going to claim half 

 the 3 lbs. allowance they gave to native jockeys ! 



Among Mr. Collins' many proti^es was the Australian 

 lad Roe, to whom I alluded in the foregoing chapter. 

 He was a slight, respectable-looking young fellow, who 

 had lots to say for himself. Jim Collins' genial heart 

 " warmed " to the lad, as he thought he had seen better 

 days, and as he was fairly educated. His efforts at 

 prose and poetry were regarded with the most pro- 

 found veneration by the old man, who could barely 

 spell through them. Roe had " a very good time of 

 it " ; he lived with his master, had to ride only two 

 or three training gallops in the mornings, and was 

 never short of money. His poetical compositions were 

 quite unfit for publication : not because they would 

 raise the proverbial blush, but they had neither sense, 

 rhyme, nor rhythm. In prose he was more successful, 

 as he was amusing and almost graphic, although prob- 

 ably not in the way he had intended, as the following 

 extract from a report of his of the Cawnpore races, 

 1869, in which Colonel Robarts' two marcs. Favourite 

 and Bellona, and the Hon. Walter Harbord's Milliner, 

 competed, may show. 



" They are off! Away they fly past the post, Bellona 



