88 The Pylchley Hunt, Past and Present, [chap. m. 



will not fail to recollect (especially if he shared the fate 

 of the narrator of the event, and came in for ^^ just a 

 taste" of the birch for not being present at the four 

 o'clock bill on that day) the great match for 100() 

 sovereigns between Mr. Elmore's ^' Moonraker " and 

 Mr. Adams's ^^ Grimaldi." The race, which excited 

 extraordinary interest from the celebrity of the animals, 

 and from the fact that a few days before, at St. Albans, 

 the two horses had run within a head of each other for 

 the steeple-chase at that place, came off over Mr. 

 Elmore's farm cear Harrow. Though " Grimaldi '' had 

 been defeated at St. Albans, Mr. Osbaldeston, who was 

 the umpire on that occasion, was so impressed with his 

 merit, that he gave the owner of " Moonraker " fifty 

 pounds to run him for a thousand sovereigns, on con- 

 dition that he himself should ride '^ Grimaldi." All 

 London was emptied to witness the race, and it being a 

 half-holiday, few indeed were the Harrow boys who did 

 not prefer to risk a '^ swishing " to being absent from so 

 great an event. Fate favoured the majority, but a few 

 had to make acquaintance with the swing of Dr. 

 Longley's arm for the breach of a fundamental law, and 

 old ^^ Gustos," time-honoured birch-provider to the 

 school, had a busy time in preparing the instruments of 

 torture. The course selected was from a field close to 

 the seventh milestone on the Edgware Road, and the 

 winning-post was in a meadow near a farmhouse at 

 Harrow Weald. The distance to be run was four miles, 

 and the course, though heavy from recent rains, was all 

 grass. " Grimaldi " started a good favourite, and won 

 easily; thus contirming the good opinion his rider had 

 formed of him at St. Albans. 



