12 TALES AND TRAITS OF SPORTING LIFE. 



worse ; and I couldn't help saying- to myself, " All this is 

 capital hedg'ing- for a certain dear cousin of ours thrice 

 removed." To be sure he'd been through every step of 

 the Rake's Progress, from strolling playing to methodist 

 preaching, and was now existing in Calais on hopes and 

 post obits ; but, with all his faults, he had never had a 

 race-horse, and , 



*^ Might I trouble you, Mr. Oxford, to put me down at 

 my little cottage, as I fear I shall be quite out of place 

 at your rejoicin2;s this evening? In fact, to tell you the 

 truth, I can't help thinking- that at the best the Profit 

 AND Loss in this racing* are strangel}'" conflicting." 



And ag'ain I was thinkino- of something' the same sort 



O DO 



myself. 



Something must be done, and if 'twere done at all, 

 'twere better it were done quickly. That something*, as 

 it generally does, meant one thing*. The hammer must a 

 second time relieve me, and the Hyde Park Corner corner 

 of the Morning Post speak for itself: — *^ On Monday 

 next, without reserve, the property of a gentleman, the 

 Mountain Maid, five years old, winner of the South 

 Western Handicap, by Muley Moloch, out of the Maid of 

 Llangollen, by Langar." 



She's gone ! — for a hundred and ten more, though, 

 than the Captain was credited for ; and like him, I am 

 happy to sa}^, out of the country. A Mr. Johannisberg'h, 

 or Broenenberg, or some such name, has escorted her to 

 Prussia, so that I shall never be tempted again. I have 

 g'ot a good precedent too. As did poor Lord George, I 

 have stopped my Calendar, and entered on another pro- 

 pensity. At this writing, I have half-a-dozen dahlias in 

 strong work, and am open at any time to an even fiver 

 that I am first, second, or third for the Amateur's Cup. 



