4 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



consider that I was " dropped at nurse when a baby," 

 which, we all know, is the mild term for having been 

 born a cripple. I will refer you, good reader, to 

 Down the Road ; or, Reminiscences of a Gentleman 

 Coachman, published by Longmans and Co., for the 

 real state of the case. I may, however, just say that 

 from the day I was born till the age of nineteen I 

 was in the possession of as good a pair of legs as 

 other people, and, as a Yankee would say, " I guess 

 I could swim as far, dive as deep, and come up as dry 

 as any other fellow." As soon as I was old enough 

 to attempt any kind of equitation, I was put upon 

 a rocking horse ; from that wooden affair I was 

 put upon a x donkey, who used to make a point of 

 kicking me off three or four times a day ; I was then 

 promoted to a pony, with merely a sheep skin and 

 a surcingle round it ; then to a saddle and stirrups ; 

 and, ultimately, to one of my Father's hunters, with 

 white cord breeches, top boots, and a swallow-tailed 

 red coat. My Father kept a good stud of light-weight 

 horses, encouraged my riding in every way, and 

 never was better pleased than to see me going well. 

 I was generally well mounted, as light as six penny- 

 worth of halfpence, certainly not much heavier than 

 a good fat Norfolk cock turkey. My motto was, 



