74 SPORTING STORIES 



besides two horses, which were named Friar and Mother 

 Brown. He took for a servant Shawm, who was then 

 about 19 years of age and one of the most impudent, 

 malicious, and ill-formed lads in that part of the kingdom. 

 Civility he could not, or would not, comprehend ; doing 

 harm was his delight ; his mind and body were equally 

 deformed, for he had an awful hump on his back. 



What induced Mr Brown to engage this impish creature 

 was no doubt his horsemanship, which is said to have been 

 of the most desperate kind. At all events, Mr Brown 

 scraped together enough money from his friends to enter 

 his two horses for the forthcoming races at Tuam. Shawm 

 was appointed to ride. Fourteen horses started for the 

 first race, and among them was Friar, a splendid gelding, 

 with Shawm on his back. This was the first race of both 

 the horse and the rider. They looked something out of 

 place on the Turf, especially the ugly hunchback, with his 

 spindle-legs. The whole course was laughing at him as he 

 proceeded from the scales to the starting-post. 



But their ridicule was soon turned into applause. When 

 the flag fell. Shawm came away with the lead in a most dash- 

 ing style, well ahead of his thirteen competitors, and main- 

 tained his lead all the way through, winning by five lengths. 



This first essay of the Shawm boy and the gallant 

 gelding Friar landed Mr Brown the winner of £1700 and 

 several carriages. Had he lost he would have been ruined, 

 and would probably have put a bullet through his head. 



On the second day Mother Brown was engaged. She 

 had only run once before, and had been unplaced ; but 

 Shawm was not in the saddle on that occasion, and that 

 made all the difference. The fact of her ignominious 

 beating caused her to start at a long price, and Mr Brown 

 took the odds to a large sum. Sixteen horses started. 

 Mother Brown was in the middle of them, and for a while 

 she continued so. But when the field got to the distance 

 she came away, and won in a canter by seven lengths, 

 amid enthusiastic cheers from the crowd, to the further 

 enrichment of her owner. 



Henceforth Friar, Mother Brown, and Shawm were all 

 the rage in Galway sporting circles. They swept all 



