182 A Sportsman at Large 



the bk. b. p. Mirko, another of the family, occupied a like 

 position. But after the untimely death of poor Harry Michels, 

 Hoad became private trainer to Mr. (afterwards Sir) Edward 

 Hulton, and signalized his appointment by winning the Blue 

 Ribbon with Hallow Eve. 



When Dark Cloth first ran in the Waterloo Cup, he was just 

 beaten in the first round (on The Withens) , but put up a good 

 show in" The Purse " on The Lydiate, only to succumb in the 

 semi-finals on the first-named flat. This performance he 

 exactly repeated the following year. 



Thus his Waterloo score stood : 



Withens : 2 defeats no wins. 



Lydiate : 4 wins no defeats. 



Talk about " Horses for courses," I think " Greyhounds for 

 Grounds " is an equally apposite saying ! I have noted many 

 such coincidences. 



Again I have defied chronology and have anticipated. 

 I must now go back to my " second era " as a courser. 



I had been out of the hunt for several years, but had a 

 yearning to come back. I was at that time established at 

 Cassio Bridge, near Watford, where I had a large assortment of 

 dogs, but nothing in the hound line except an aged bloodhound 

 called Prim, whose office it was to mount sentry over the lares 

 et penates at night ; for which duty she exacted pay in the 

 shape of raw hens' and ducks' eggs which she abstracted from 

 the nests and devoured wholesale. 



I had there a dozen of my noted flat-coated retrievers, a 

 grand team of cocker spaniels (mostly black) and an equally 

 beautiful bunch of clumbers, plus various terriers, a bulldog 

 (alleged), a pug or two and other odds and ends. 



