VARSITY STEEPLECHASE 155 



making it more like a spinney than a hedge ; then another 

 fence, with a big yawning ditch beyond. 



I saw this so-called race won by Vanish, a useful, 

 racer-looking, well-bred nag, belonging to a farmer named 

 Harris, living at Hampdon, on the Chiltern Hills. The 

 winner was so distressed that, although he managed to 

 jump the first hedge and land on the bank, he could 

 scarcely stand, and some bystanders assisted in getting him 

 into the second ditch, where the rider dismounted, then 

 remounted, and slowly cantered between the flags. The 

 second horse then appeared on the scene, was pushed into 

 the first ditch, and fell, utterly beaten, on the landing-side , 

 after a few minutes he rose, and, riderless, got into the 

 second ditch. With great difficulty he was pulled out, his 

 jockey mounted, while three men on each side propped him 

 up, and the poor brute crawled feebly between the flags, 

 and obtained the second money. After waiting some time, 

 no one else appearing although twelve had started, the 

 judge with his friends left the field, proceeding homewards 

 in a fly. The crowd were returning along the road, which 

 adjoins the last three fields, amongst them the veteran John 

 Brown of Tring, who has since died at the age of ninety- 

 three, when somebody said, " Muster Brown, there ain't 

 been anybody claiming the £io for the third horse ? " The 

 old man rode back with some friends about half a mile, 

 where he had left off beaten, and, as his horse had some- 

 what recovered his wind, he set him going, came up to the 

 terrible double, got safely over, calling upon several people 

 to witness that he had fairly finished the course, and 

 claimed the iJ'io for third money, which, in the end, was 

 awarded to him. 



At the Aylesbury Steeplechases of 1848 a match was 

 decided between a mare called Clementina and a horse 

 called Sailor. Approaching the dreaded brook, Clemen- 

 tina's jockey fairly funked, and in the middle of the grass 

 field threw himself off his mount, and left the mare to her- 

 self. An undergraduate named Burlton, in a most plucky 

 manner, rushed forward, caught the mare, vaulted into the 

 vacant saddle, sent her at a rattling pace at the brook, and, 

 clearing the water, challenged Sailor close home, and 



