A NIGHT IN A CHALK-PIT. 209 



present day, and exchange a trainer one day to have 

 another the next, he never changed his trainer, and 

 thus showed his confidence and satisfaction in those 

 he employed. Indeed, the same jockey rode for him 

 as far as practicable during the whole time that he 

 kept racehorses ; and he never, that I remember, had 

 a discordant word with either the one or the other. 

 Rare qualities, not possessed by many in our 

 time ! 



When he was getting well on in years, being at the 

 time about seventy, a very serious accident befell him. 

 He was returning in the evening from a convivial 

 party of youthful friends in his own village, and, in 

 crossing the fields to his house, accidentally fell down 

 a chalk-pit and broke his thigh. As no one was near 

 to hear his call for assistance, he had to remain there, 

 ruminating over past pleasures, till discovered by one 

 of his labourers in the morning, attracted to the spot 

 by his moans. Assistance was soon got, and, terrible 

 and unpleasant as his experience in the night hours 

 had been, he recovered from its effects with the vigour 

 of a good constitution. It resulted, however, in 

 shortening his leg, and in his subsequent lameness. 

 But, beyond this slight disfigurement, the fall 

 appeared to have done him no harm ; for he lived 

 many years afterwards, in the enjoyment of buoyant 

 spirits and the full possession of his faculties and 

 physical health, retaining to the end his love for the 

 alluring society of the other sex. He died at his 



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