362 The Post and the Paddock. 



wouldn't think it, though, to look at me, I'm so 

 thick across, and there's not much to come off my 

 legs. That picture of me is a regular caricature ; 

 the weight's for all the world just in the wrong 

 place. Such a hat, too, they've put on me. 

 Well, I was telling you : I once got off twelve 

 pounds in about as many hours ; I was at it, one 

 way or another, from half-past four one afternoon 

 till six next morning. I was at Birmingham, and 

 Captain Fendall he wanted me to ride I2st. on his 

 grey horse at Alcester next day ; and he had to be 

 there at eight o'clock to enter him. So he would 

 have me go into a vapour bath. I went in usual 

 time, twenty minutes, and a man comes — " How do 

 you feel .?" " I feel very well," I says ; " I'll be in a 

 bit longer." Then he comes back with a tray, and 

 he begins — " Gentlemen sometimes has coffee when 

 they're in the bath." So I puts my head out of the 

 little hole (I was all tied in, you see), and I says, 

 " Hang your coffee ! I'm hot enough, outside and in 

 — take it away." In five minutes he comes again, 

 and I says, " I'm doing uncommon nicely, just you 

 wait ;" — It was pouring off me then ! Well, when that 

 five minutes was over, he didn't ask me what I'd do, 

 but he whips the curtains away, wraps me in a blanket, 

 and had me off across the passage to another room, 

 under a regular pile of blankets, for half-an-hour. My 

 heart, how it did bump to be sure ! I'd just been and 

 overdone it. Then the Captain, he'd been and got 

 the physic, and a precious stiff dose they'd mixed for 

 me ! They dressed me, and the Captain and I went 

 off in a chaise. When I was two miles off Alcester 

 I got out and walked, and the Captain he went on to 

 get me a bedroom ready. When I got to the inn. 

 Mason and Becher and Powell were all there' in the 

 coffee-room : they'd come down to ride. When I 

 went in, they says, " How are you, old cock f" and 

 then the Captain, he comes in with his " Well, Dick, 



