CHAPTER III 
The little Gloucestershire village of Prestbury nestles at 
the foot of Cleeve Hill, the highest of the Cotswolds, 
In the first days of the war it is said that, when the Gloucester- 
shire men joined up, recruits who were members of the Church of 
England were told to stand forward ; several did so, and so did 
the Roman Catholics and others. But when Presbyterians 
were asked for, some of the Church of England men again 
stepped out of the Une. " But you are Church of England," 
it was objected. "So we be, sir, so we be ; but we be 
Presbyterians too," said these inhabitants of no mean village. 
Though steeplechasing was born elsewhere — Sir Willoughby 
Maycock said it took place in England as far back as 1792 — 
St. Albans and Prestbury were its cradles. In Prestbury, 
Tom Oliver, pupil of Tommy Coleman, settled down after the 
Wander jahre of his adventurous youth. His house and 
stables and lovely garden were just where the tramline swerves 
round beyond Prestbury village on the way to Southam. Here 
he trained men, as well as horses, and Mr. Raleigh said he 
prepared Tom Sayers there for his earlier fights, particularly 
for his terrific encounter with Harry Paulsen. 
Black Tom Oliver gave Lindsay Gordon his first mount 
in the Trials on the racecourse, remarking afterwards : " There 
now, you young devil, you've rode a race." He gave Tom 
Pickernell his first ride in a steeplechase at Andoversford 
and to him he said : " It's as well you were beaten, young. 
squire, or you'd have thought you could ride." 
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