172 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



a pleasant sort of team to start with, and as there 

 were sundry hills and shoots in the seven miles before 

 I should come to my change, I almost wondered how 

 we should get there. However, it was daylight, and 

 with going a little cannily, and with the help of my 

 now almost obsolete skid, we did get there without 

 coming to grief. We change at Lamport, and I 

 drive my own team on to the Northampton race- 

 course, when everything goes right, and I am ordered 

 by the ladies to be ready as soon as the last race 

 but one is over. 



I am ready to the moment, and put myself and 

 coach in evidence, but I have ladies amongst my 

 passengers, and, gentle reader, I feel sure that you 

 have guessed ere this that no power or persuasive 

 eloquence of mine can get them near the coach they 

 must see the last race. I send to them, and try to 

 impress upon them that it will be pitch dark before 

 we can get home. Nevertheless, they stick to their 

 seats in the grand stand as if they were stuck down 

 with Burgundy pitch or diachylon plaster ; budge 

 they won't, and budge they don't till the last race 

 is over. 



At last, having got my load, we make a start, and 

 by putting on a little extra stearri arrive at our change. 



