58 SPORTING STORIES 



as, if not, he would like him to ride one of his Lordship's. 

 Jem, who had not a mount, gladly accepted the offer, 

 weighed out, and ultimately won, after a grand display of 

 jockeyship on his part. Some little time afterwards, whilst 

 Goater was talking to a friend. Lord Portsmouth came up 

 to him and said, " Goater, you rode an excellent race, and 

 I am much pleased." 



Jem, who did not know his Lordship by sight, considered 

 it a great impertinence for a most shabbily dressed man (it 

 was one of Lord Portsmouth's peculiarities to wear old and 

 worn-out clothes) to interrupt him, curtly replied, " Oh yes ; 

 glad you think so," and resumed his conversation, to the 

 great horror of his friend, who, knowing Lord Portsmouth, 

 was simply dumbfounded, and vainly endeavoured by facial 

 signs to make Goater attend to him. 



Continuing, Lord Portsmouth said, " I must make you a 

 present, Goater, for winning." Jem, scarcely turning towards 

 him, answered, " Never mind, old chap ; glad you won a bit 

 on it." 



His Lordship, who by then had quite grasped the 

 situation, walked away exploding with laughter, whereupon 

 Goater's friend immediately exclaimed, " You damned fool, 

 that's Lord Portsmouth himself!" 



Goater, when telling this, always wound up by saying, 

 " I didn't want a Turkish bath to make me sweat then." 



How Goater rode for Lord Portsmouth as long as he 

 owned race-horses, and what an attachment existed between 

 master and servant henceforth, until the " grim king " 

 claimed them both, is a matter of history. 



Apropos of Goater and Lord Portsmouth, it was on the 

 occasion of riding that nobleman's grand horse Buccaneer 

 for the Royal Hunt Cup in 1861 that " the Admiral " made 

 his maiden bow with the starter's flag ; and a nice mess he 

 made of it. There had been a lot of complaints just before 

 this as to the starting, and Admiral Rous, in his charac- 

 teristic manner, said, " I'll start 'em myself, and make these 

 jockey boys mind their p's and q's." It was scarcely wise 

 to commence on a field of thirty-three runners (the number 

 in Buccaneer's year), but, boiling over with wrath and 

 indignation, down went the gallant old salt, flag in hand, 



