ONLY THE MARE. 217 



" You know that there was a small race-meeting at 

 Bibury the other day. I rode over on Little Lady, and 

 found a lot of the 140th Dragoons there ; that conceited 

 young person Blankney amongst the number. Now, 

 although Blankney has a very considerable personal 

 knowledge of the habits and manners of the ass, he 

 doesn't know much about horses ; and for that reason 

 he saw fit to read us a lecture on breeding and training, 

 pointing his moral and adorning his tale with a refer- 

 ence to my mare — whose pedigree, you know, is above 

 suspicion. After, however, he had kindly informed us 

 what a thoroughbred horse ought to be, he looked at 

 Little Lady and said, ' Now, I shouldn't think that 

 thing was thoroughbred ! ' It ended by my matching 

 her against that great raw-boned chestnut of his : three 

 and a half miles over the steeplechase course, to be run 

 at the Holmesdale Meeting, on the 4th December. 



" As you may guess, I didn't want to win or lose a lot 

 of money, and when he asked what the match should be 

 for, I suggested ^£20 a side.' * Hardly worth while 

 making a fuss for ^20! ' he said, rather sneerily. '^120, 

 if you like ! ' I answered, rather angrily, hardly mean- 

 ing what I said; but he pounced on the offer. Of course 

 I couldn't retract, and so, very stupidly, I plunged 

 deeper into the mire, and made several bets with the 

 fellows who were round us. They gave me 3 to i 

 against the mare, but I stand to lose nearly ^500. 



"You see now what I want. I ride quite 12 stone, as 

 you know; the mare is to carry 11 stone, and you can 



