THE DEAD ALIVE. 143 



John Dilly, the trainer. I am unprepared to say 

 whether he caught his many eccentricities from asso- 

 ciation with Mr. Fulwar Craven, or whether the latter 

 enriched his superabundant store of anecdotes from 

 Mr. Dilly's repertory. How this was will never be 

 known. But I may tell that the Littleton trainer 

 was always impecunious ; for he lived extravagantly 

 and be'yond his means. He was also not regarded 

 as being over- attentive to the truth. One day he 

 asked Mr. Wreford, who trained with him at the 

 time, if he would do him a little favour by putting 

 his name to a bill for him for £300. It was, as he 

 confidently assured him, ' but a matter of form.' 

 But Mr. Wreford did not see it, and briefly replied : 



' The matter of form is simply this, Mr. Dilly — if 

 you can't pay it I must.' 



After borrowing of any and every one he could, 

 and after having tired all his relations out, he hit 

 upon the following successful scheme to raise £25 

 from his brother. He was then living at Newmarket, 

 and his brother, Mr. Montgomery Dilly, at Littleton, 

 in Hampshire. John Dilly wrote in the name of 

 a ' mutual friend,' in a disguised hand, and said : 



' Dear Sir, 



' I am sorry to inform you your poor 

 brother, Mr. John, is no more. He departed this life 

 this morning, almost without a struggle. Feeling sure 

 you would like to see him have a decent burial, I 



