280 KACECOUESE AND COVERT SIDE. 



overcoats begin to appear, and among quaint 

 sights is a priest with long black gown and 

 clerical hat, and — a pair of race glasses hung 

 across his shoulders. There is a sort of courage 

 about the act that looks well. 



'' If you only wear trousers to cover your 

 inclinations, sir, you might as well ride com- 

 fortably in boots and breeches," a Church 

 dignitary with a sympathy for sport once told 

 his curate, who, without actually making a 

 practice of hunting, generally knew where the 

 hounds were, and rode in that direction. This 

 Trench priest finds no harm in going to the 

 races and wants to see them well when he is 

 there, though the combination is doubtless 

 strange. 



There are the numbers — eighteen starters, 

 and of the English division only one, the Duke 

 of St. Albans' pouliche. That " difficult " 

 sportsman, the Count de Lagrange, starts three 

 out of the four he has entered, but does not 

 provide the first favourite, the English animal 

 being elevated to that position, though most of the 

 papers " go " for one of the Count's. Petitsinge 

 has had a tip, and is in mysterious conversation 

 with an energetic compatriot about Vliandicapj 

 as he calls all races without distinction, as to 

 the method by which the weights are adjusted ; 



