The Dmdey Arabian. 207 



would rather see the ring under the chapel wall, 

 where Emilius, Birdcatcher, Teddington, and Long- 

 bow have all been lunged in their time, than the good 

 St. Agatha herself. 



A troop of brood mares are wandering near those 

 ivy-clad patches of walls, which still stand as ancient 

 landmarks. Mrs. Taft, of Cesarewitch memory, 

 stands hard by the Abbot's Elm, beneath which the 

 hunting exploits of " The Curtail Prior of Fountain," 

 must have been talked over by the friars in the days 

 when Robin Hood, heedless of the sheriff of the 

 county, twanged the yew in many a Yorkshire and 

 Sherwood glade. Lady Johns and Sweetheart are 

 holding mysterious converse with The Belle beneath 

 the crumbling Catherine-wheel of the refectory, whose 

 mullions have been eaten by mild decay and left it 

 hanging by balance. Gipsy Queen has ensconced 

 herself in the massive cart shed, the top of which 

 once did duty as a Record Office ; while her foal. 

 Curse Royal, is racing round like a lunatic within 

 some hurdles near the cloisters, as if unable to endure 

 the thought of the hopeless half-forfeits which its 

 *' man in boots " racing talent has incurred for Mr. 

 Jaques. Old Comedy, who would hit to anything, 

 and whom Billy Pierse swore by as the fastest two- 

 year-old he ever had, till exposure in grass paddocks 

 made her a rank roarer, has long since passed away, 

 and she lies at the turn of the walk in the Abbey 

 Wood hard by her daughter, Burletta and Augur's 

 dam. Only one living trace of her is in sight, and 

 that a chestnut Mildew yearling, which is trying to 

 emulate its great-grandam's good name, and enliven- 

 ing the good folk of Richmond in their afternoon's 

 walk by its playful efforts in the ring. 



But we must not linger too long at the ,, , ^ .,. 



r -r- -r n-\ tt t ^ Sons of Emilius. 



grave of Lmihus. The Bizarre Ime of 



Orville stopped with Rat-trap, who is remembered, if 



for nothing else, by that most punishing of races 



