ADVENTURES OF TOM OLLIVER 91 



Tom stayed with his uncle another two years, and then 

 got an engagement with a Mr Walter Young to train and 

 ride some horses for him in the West of England. Soon 

 afterwards this gentleman proposed that the young jockey 

 should go to Ireland and train for him on his Irish estate, 

 Rosemore Lodge, on the Curragh. Thinking he had fallen 

 into a good thing, Tom thankfully accepted the offer and 

 went off. Upon arriving at Rosemore, however, he found 

 that Mr Young's affairs were far from flourishing: there 

 was no money and very little to eat at the lodge. 

 Butter-milk and oatmeal was the standing dish ; and, 

 after a while, whatever edible animal remained about the 

 place disappeared to appease his appetite. At last, when 

 famine stared him in the face, his employer sent him 

 thirty shillings to get to Liverpool and bring two horses 

 with him. Thirty-seven Irish miles did he travel on two- 

 pennyworth of whisky and a dry biscuit. When he 

 reached Queenstown, a hungry creditor pounced down upon 

 the horses and carried them off. The next day Tom 

 arrived in Liverpool penniless. 



After a very short stay in Liverpool, Olliver found a 

 situation as foreman to an Irish horse-coper named Farrell, 

 and with a string of screws visited every fair in England. 

 Tom was a rolling stone that never stayed long in one 

 place ; and broken vows to a fair damsel, who " loved not 

 wisely but too well," compelled him to make tracks from 

 the great shipping town. Once more his uncle's roof 

 received him, and it was at Egham steeplechases he first 

 caught the idea of adopting that line of life. Mr Bartley, 

 the bootmaker of Oxford Street, got him his first mount 

 for the Finchley steeplechase ; but his mare fell into a 

 ditch in the second field from home, and returning in his 

 wet clothes the unfortunate rider caught a severe cold, lay 

 speechless for six weeks, and received the munificent sum 

 of one guinea for his mount. On his next appearance in 

 the pigskin his fee was increased to two guineas — a rise 

 which greatly cheered him. 



OUiver's handsome face, well-made figure, firm seat, and 

 manner of handling a horse soon attracted the attention 

 of the owners of steeplechasers, and he quickly obtained 



