40 The Post and the Paddock. 



rush on the post. Lads, however promising", were 

 held quite cheap then by their seniors ; but in the case 

 of Sam Rogers, a regular row was raised after one race 

 at Newmarket, because some of his craft had kindly- 

 sung out some directions to him. The nicest ridden 

 finish we ever remember was one between Old Eng- 

 land (J. Day, junior), Plaudit (Marson), and Prologue 

 (Robinson), over the Abingdon Mile, in the Houghton 

 of 1844. Old England made his own running all the 

 way, and the set-to between him and the two others, 

 who challenged him right and left in the cords, after 

 he had got his pull, was a perfect masterpiece. Young 

 John, as fine a horseman, both for power, seat, and 

 science, as ever held a bridle, certainly never rode 

 better ; and those who remember the half-sluggish 

 half-roguish way in which Old England invariably 

 finished, can appreciate the exquisite mouth-touching 

 he required at such a crisis, when the two were at his 

 neck in the last stride. Besides this bout, Harry 

 Edwards outriding Bill Scott over Knavesmire on the 

 two-year-old Naworth, or Connolly over the Beacon, 

 on Don John ; Chappie making running from end to 

 end, and winning a head on Lugwardine at Chelten- 

 ham, or waiting on Landgrave for the Cambridgeshire 

 with such agonizing patience, till the last two strides, 

 that we felt that if we had possessed the aim of a 

 Camelford, we could have gladly taken a pistol out 

 and shot the reins in two ; Robinson doing Sam 

 Darling by a short head on Barrier at Ascot, or rally- 

 ing Rathmines home for the Aualey End ; Sam 

 Rogers holding ungenerous brutes like Vasa and 

 Walmer, hard in front, and just coaxing them, after 

 being beaten once or twice in a race, to make one 

 more effort ; Sim Templeman getting his pull, and 

 coming again on the post with the British Yeoman for 

 the Doncaster Two-year-old Stakes, or lifting Catha- 

 rina home first by about a nose for the Manchester 

 Cup ; Alfred Day nursing the sinking Dervish at 



