AND OTHER SKETCHES 41 



of stiff timber five feet high. None of your modern 

 flimsies that when struck by a hoof fly into fifty pieces 

 and generally wound a horse with the splinters, but 

 genuine old-fashioned obstructions, composed of cedar 

 trees cut down in the immediate neighborhood and with 

 cross pieces bolted through with long wooden pins. 



The starter of the race was Captain Markham, who, 

 afterwards as Colonel Markham, greatly distinguished 

 himself in the Crimean war. In fact, most of the troops 

 quartered here in that year were ordered to the Crimea, 

 and the very men who had earned from our people the 

 title of the '* Queen's Hard Bargains," were first to 

 achieve distinction on the battlefield. So much rivalry 

 and feeling had been engendered over this particular race 

 and so much money had been staked on the various 

 horses engaged, that on the eventful day fully six thou- 

 sand peoj^le were on hand to witness the struggle. A 

 few minutes prior to the starting bell sounding, Mr. Ro- 

 maine, on Ploughboy, and Captain Denison, on Shillelagh, 

 indulged in a preliminary canter. The latter horse was 

 the favorite in the betting. He was known to have the 

 speed of the party and the staying qualities to back it, 

 but he was a slovenly performer over sticks, galloping 

 with head down between his knees, and the hopes of his 

 opponents were based upon the chance that he would not 

 "lift" himself over five-feet stiff timber. 



Taking a trial jump. Shillelagh did just what was 

 prophesied, viz., failed to rise high enough and struck 

 the cross-bar such a cracker that he came to his knees, 

 but was cleverly recovered by Captain Denison. The 

 force with which he hit caused the end pin to spring loose 

 and the rebound of the stick caught Mr. Romaine's horse 

 in the forelegs and sent him over end, his rider falling 

 underneath and getting badly bruised and cut up. Mr. 

 Romaine was picked up by the late Recorder Duggan 

 and Mr. Robert James, of Homer, and carried into a 

 neighboring tent, where a military medico proposed to 

 bleed him. Mr. Romaine, however, rallied without the 

 blood-spilling operation, and as the saddling bell had 



