32 MR. HENRY PAD WICK. 



rate down a steep hill, little short of a precipice. The 

 boy in a fright threw himself off, and the horse was 

 left to pursue his headlong career. Goater on his 

 hack and the gentlemen in their carriage went madly 

 after him. But all to no purpose. Belgrade soon 

 outdistanced them and was lost to sight, after divest- 

 ing himself of his saddle and bridle and every particle 

 of clothing except his boots. As nothing could be seen 

 or heard of him, Goater returned in the evening to 

 relate the catastrophe to my father, intending the next 

 morning again to scour the country in search of the 

 missing Derby favourite. This trouble he was, how- 

 ever, saved ; for some one called to know ' if a horse 

 had been lost, as one was caught in his yard late last 

 night, and was now in the end of the barn tied up 

 with a halter.' A man was soon sent with clothing, 

 and the horse was brought back in a terrible plight. 



Thus ended Mr. Padwick's attempt to show off a 

 Derby favourite on a Sunday, with a view to his 

 advantageous sale, simply preventing a result he could 

 easily have attained on any other day. Whether the 

 horse was good for anything before, or whether the 

 Sunday gallop ruined him, I never heard; but certainly 

 he was never good for anything after. And it was 

 Mr. Padwick's last visit to Findon on a Sunday whilst 

 my father trained for him. 



Mr. Padwick was at heart a gambler. He was as 

 great an adept at cards, betting, or dice as he was at 

 racing, or even in his special business. Of this gambling 



