M 



[l\'.^^fc^ 



182 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



Mr. Lance was called Mr. Dart, Mr. Hill was Mr. 

 Mountain ; whilst others, like Mr. Jas. Allgood, who 

 was by far the champion rider in Oxford, was Captain 

 Barlow. It is so long since, that I forget many 

 amusing sobriquets. These fictitious names were 

 printed on the card of the races, as also in the public 

 accounts in ' Bell's Life,' which at that day, 1847, 

 was almost the only sporting paper published, and 

 that issued weekly, yet the immense authority wielded 

 by this paper can scarcely be credited in the present 

 p 'RfMrrT ►^ day. No sporting event of any notoriety whatever, 



whether pugilistic, racing, steeple-chasing, betting, 

 card-playing, aquatic, athletic, &c., was in dispute, 

 \fn^^ but it was always referred to ' Bell's Life,' whose 



decision was considered final, and was acquiesced 

 in by everyone. Amongst the endless variety of 

 sporting papers — daily, weekly, or otherwise — con- 

 ducted as many of them are on the most careful and 

 really safe lines, and on eminently high-class literary 

 principles, none of them have ever claimed the 

 authoritative position of ' Bell's Life.' The tacit 

 consent of all parties to the decisions of this paper 

 had many advantages, specially by saving litigation 

 and unpleasant controversy. It may be well 

 imagined how the accounts of the Aylesbury 

 Aristocratic Races were scanned after the spring 

 meeting, when the paper appeared on the breakfast 

 table of many a squire's mansion, or at a clerical 

 dignitary's rectory, to revive the recollections of old 

 college friends at this popular reunion of past and 

 present members of both 'Varsities. Knowing 



