98 SPORTING STORIES 



his unwelcome visitor the Sheriffs officer. " Don't you 

 sell your horse," replied Jem ; " send him to me, and I'll 

 win the race for you," and the advice was accompanied 

 by a fiver for the railway fare. So Trust-me-not was 

 despatched to Harlesden Green and entered for a small 

 steeplechase, Jem paying the stake. The horse was 

 brought on the ground with a terrific bit, which Jem at once 

 changed for a double-rein snaffle, although Tom protested 

 that he could not hold the horse with anything less formid- 

 able than the original bit. " Hold your tongue, and see 

 your horse win," was the reply; and win he did, to the 

 great joy and relief of poor Tom. 



There were critics who said that Jem Mason's seat was 

 too far back in the saddle, and others who declared that 

 he was great at fences and ditches, but incapable of 

 making the most of his horse at the finish. I pin my faith, 

 however, to the verdict of his great rival, Tom Olliver, who 

 described Jem Mason as the finest horseman in England. 



Out of the pigskin Jem was a bit of a " toff," always well 

 dressed and smart in appearance — looked a gentleman, in 

 fact, and indeed behaved himself as one. His last ride in 

 public was for Lord Strathmore on Abd-el-Kader, and Jem 

 always maintained that if the horse had not been " got at " 

 he must have won. Early in 1866 Jem began to suffer 

 terribly from cancer in the throat, and after some months 

 of suffering he died in the October of that year. 



