56 The Post and the Paddock, 



With the history of the Tattersall's battalion we 

 have nothing to do. Recruits come in from every 

 rank and everyplace; but the Ring is not in so healthy 

 a state as it was a few years ago, and far below what it 

 was in the ten year cycle before that ; and welchers, 

 regardless of pumps and mobbing, begin to wax rife 

 in the land. Those who have seen members of this 

 fraternity hauled out of the Ring at Doncaster, when 

 even the massive Leadbitter, the only man whom we 

 ever saw really manage a crowd, was no tower of 

 strength to them, can judge of the full meaning of the 

 expression '* falling into the hands of man," especially 

 when the Timour Mammon is in the question. The 

 rush on the helpless Stock Exchange intruder, when 

 the pack are cheered on by the " Who wants to buy 

 five Jmndred per cents'' tallyho, is merciful in com- 

 parison. At Newmarket the thing is done more neatly, 

 as about forty couple of groom boys resolve themselves 

 into merry harriers for the nonce ; and if the hare is 

 started half way across the flat, his coat and waistcoat 

 are fluttering wildly in the breeze, his handkerchief has 

 been made a leading rope of, and his hat a foot-ball, 

 long before he finds a peaceful hermitage in some 

 back alley of the town. The Catterick clerk of the 

 course, hearing of the motley crowd which had shown 

 at Lincoln, is said to have considerately provided some 

 stout labourers and a tar-barrel for the special benefit 

 of the welchers, at one of his meetings. Although we 

 cannot coincide in his views, it is still to be regretted 

 that there is not some conventional ordeal to which 

 such gentlemen could be consigned ; and we often 

 think how one Moore, the unworthy incumbent of 

 the *' Suffolk Curacy," dedicated a book to " Duke 

 Humphrey," and was then entirely lost sight of by 

 his old college friends, till one of them espied him 

 slung up in " the basket!' for not paying his bets at a 

 cock-pit. 



Savage as they may be at the sight of a welcher, 



