CHAPTER XIX. 



A TRIAL E0R MR. MERRY. 



I try Hobble Noble for the Cambridgeshire — Difference of opinion 

 as to weights — Eesult — Why he beat Joe MiUer — Treatment 

 before the race — How it was lost — Another trial ; Weathergage 

 for the Cesarewitch — A difference of opinion as to distance — 

 Something about Mr. Merry and his satellites — His success at 

 cocking — An old cockpit — Kegret on his leaving the turf — 

 Buchanan and ' Tass ' Parker — Characteristics and associations 

 — Buchanan's betting — Loses himself in a lawsuit against his 

 employer — Different ending of the two men — A doubtful gift 

 — ' Betting on a certainty ;' but the biter bit. 



I mentioned in the last chapter that at one time I 

 was able to be of some service to Mr. Merry. I have 

 had to do with this good sportsman in his direct con- 

 nection with my stable in the case of Lord of the Isles; 

 and I may now perhaps not unfittingly describe this 

 trial of another of his horses, and the result of the 

 race that followed it. Joe Miller had followed up his 

 success in beating forty-two horses in the Chester 

 Cup by winning the Emperor's Vase (Ascot Cup), 

 beating in it Hobbie Noble — for which Mr. Merry had 

 given as a two-year-old, the previous year, the large 

 sum of £6,000 to the then Lord John Scott — besides 



