The Sport of Our Jincestors 



as though they had been born sailors with pipes in their mouths. 

 Remember, if you can't manage to sit your horse, you '11 be fit for 

 nothing, but a seat in Parliament along with Captain Catlap and the 

 other incurables. I can't think there can be much difficulty in the 

 matter, judging from the lumpy wash-balley sort of men one hears 

 talking about it. I should think if you had a horse of your own, 

 you would be able to make better cut. Whatever you do, however, 

 have nothing to do with racing. It 's only for rogues and people 

 who have more money than they know what to do with, and to whom 

 it doesn't matter whether they win or they lose. . . . No gentle- 

 man need expect to make money on the turf, for if you were to win 

 they wouldn't pay you, whereas if you lose it 's quite a different 

 thing. One of the beauties of hunting is that people have no induce- 

 ment to poison each other ; whereas in racing, from poisoning horses 

 they have got to poisoning men, besides which one party must lose 

 if the other is to win. Mutual advantage is impossible. Another 

 thing if you were to win ever so, the trainer would always keep his 

 little bill in advance of your gains, or he would be a very bad trainer.' 



Before we leave him, we suggest that ' The Earl of 

 Ladythorne of Tantivy Castle and Belvedere House, London ' 

 is one of the happiest titles in the whole of fiction, connoting 

 as it does the gallantry, the gaiety, the ' glad eye,' the love 

 of sport, and the hereditary wealth which were the attributes 

 of the great nobleman who lived in an age when he could 

 do what he liked with impunity. 



From the castle Billy went to Major Yammerton, and 

 thence to Sir Moses Mainchance, M.F.H. Major Yammer- 

 ton was a pretentious little squire, and master of harriers, 

 and might easily have stepped out of Thackeray's ^Book oj 

 Snobs.' Sir Moses Mainchance 's title speaks for itself. 

 The whole book is full of wit and wisdom, sustained to the 



34 



