15^ Indian Racing Reminiscences. 



front, gave his rider a desperate purl. He and his 

 friend, however, slew the pig after a stubbornly fought 

 battle. 



Mr, Webb and his friends Mr. Bob Crowdy, the great 

 steeplechase rider, Mr. Buxton, another fine horseman, 

 who won on Sweep at Lucknow in 1876 and was on 

 Hermit when he broke his back at Ballygunge, were 

 dangerous men to follow, or even to sit alongside of in 

 a dog-cart when any one of them held the reins. Bob 

 Crowdy never hesitated at putting his racehorses and 

 chasers into a trap without any previous training, and 

 as he invariably used harness " as rotten as pears," and 

 scorned to go on the high road when he could take a 

 short cut across country, he seldom escaped without an 

 accident or two. Although Bob would spend his last 

 penny in buying a horse fancied, he used to think that 

 any old tackle was good enough to serve as gear. The 

 subject of his horses' clothing, their saddlery, and his 

 own " get-up " furnished many a joke. I remember 

 well, at the Lucknow Races one day, seeing an ener- 

 getic steward of the meeting rush up to a pony that 

 was meekly standing in a corner of the saddling en- 

 closure with an old and torn blanket on his back, and 

 indignantly order the supposed grass-cutter's /^/ out of 



