JEM MASON AND LOTTERY 97 



were two gates, one on each side, between the flags. What 

 was my surprise to see Mason, who, I thought, must from 

 the weight have long since been out of it, coming with a 

 strong lead, and making all his own running, Down to the 

 gates he came, and bounded over them, in and out of the 

 road like a football, while the rest, not daring to take the 

 timber, were scrambling at the fences ; and he was never 

 caught, but went on, and won as he liked." 



Weight had evidently little effect on Lottery when in 

 his best form, and so confident was Jem Mason of the 

 superiority of his horse over all his rivals that when walking 

 round the course at Dunchurch, where the choice lay 

 between a strong bullfinch and a high new gate off a fresh- 

 metalled road, he coolly said : " I am not going to scratch 

 my face, as I am going to the Opera to-night, but I shall 

 go forty miles an hour at the gate, and there is no man 

 in England dare follow me." But the custom of handi- 

 capping steeplechase horses, which came in at this time, 

 imposed such penalties upon Lottery that during the two 

 years longer he was in training he only won once — at 

 Newport Pagnel. 



The next two horses upon which Jem Mason dis- 

 tinguished himself, were Jerry and Gaylad. He once rode 

 the latter for two miles with the stirrup-iron up his leg, and 

 when he came in to weigh it was with the greatest difficulty 

 he could be got out of the saddle. Gaylad's great match 

 with Crosby over four miles of the Harrow country was 

 one of the most curious things in steeplechasing. During 

 the race both horses were not less than four times reduced 

 to a walk, and when they got to the last fence neither had 

 a jump left in him. The friends of both then began 

 pulling down the fence for them, and Jack Darby boldly 

 shoved Gaylad into the winning-field, and Jem managed 

 to hold him up and walk in, greatly to the chagrin of 

 Macdonough, who was on Crosby. 



Jem was always ready to serve a friend in distress, and 

 having received a confidential communication from Tom 

 Olliver, who, as usual, was in " Short Street," to the effect 

 that all he possessed on earth was Trust-me-not, he asked 

 Jem to buy the horse, that he might be able to get rid of 



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