264 Among Men and Horses. 



eyes. He likes his horse appointments to be as smart as 

 Wilton, Merry or Soutar can turn them out. His riding 

 boots would be a credit to Peal ; and his breeches, to Tautz. 

 The rest of his attire is just what he would wear among his 

 own good set at home. As South Africans do not particu- 

 larly affect collars and ties, or the brushing of boots and 

 clothes, and, as a rule, are content to rely on the local hand- 

 me-down man for their wearing apparel ; they are inclined to 

 resent any approach to ' smartness,' which word I use here in 

 its army, and not in its society meaning. Though I am 

 now 'slack' enough, goodness knows, I have very kindly 

 memories of the days when I, too, liked to be as ' smart' as 

 the best of them. 



In Johannesburg there was another gentleman who be- 

 longed to the same John Bull type as Mr Buckridge, but was 

 not, like him, a good business man. His ideas were solely 

 centered on horses, hunting and chasing. He was a fine 

 horseman, and would ride any ' chancy ' brute sooner than sit 

 down and look on while a cross-country event was being 

 decided. He would live on dry bread and water, and 

 sleep on any miserable ' shake-down,' so long as he could be 

 near a horse or a racecourse. He cared nothing for gambl- 

 ing ; but everything for sport. Through all his bad luck and 

 misery in his exile, he was buoyed up with the hope, which 

 never left him, that one day he would ride the winner of the 

 Liverpool Grand National : he could then die happy. I saw 

 him at the Johannesburg Races riding in a chase, with his 

 left arm bound tighly to his side on account of a recently 

 fractured collar bone. Though his horse had not a hundred 

 to one chance, and was but an indifferent jumper, he rode 

 him straight and well, all for sport ; for proud of the name of 

 G. R., he would not get even the fee of a losing mount, which 

 would have come in very handy to him at that time. As he 

 was cantering down to the post, I took off my hat to him with 

 deep respect, though his back was turned to me, and he was 

 far away from where I was standing. 



