On one of those doubtful occasions, when it is difficult to name the winner, I thought I could determine the point, from some peculiar advantage of situation, and offered to back my opinion. I laid that Cobbler had won, and it was taken; but a signal from a friend decided me that I was wrong, and by way of hedge, I offered to lay that Tinker was the first horse. This was taken like the other, and the Judges declared a dead rob--I mean to say a dead heat.--Pay again!
A likelier chance next offered. There was a difference of opinion, whether Bohea would start for the Cup, and his noble owner had privately and positively assured me that he would. I therefore betted freely that he would _run_ for the Plate, and he _walked_ over!--Pay again! N.B. I found, when it was too late, that I should not have paid in this case, but I did.
The Great St. Leger was still in reserve. Somewhat desperate, I betted round, in sums of the same shape, and my best winner became first favourite at the start. Never shall I forget the sight! I saw him come in ten lengths a-head of everything--hollow! hollow! I had no voice to shout with, and it was fortunate. Man and horse went, as usual, after the race, to be weighed, and were put into the scale. They rose a little in our eyes, and sunk proportionably in our estimation. Roguery was sniffed--the Jockey Club was appealed to, and it gave the stakes to the second horse. All bets went with the stakes, and so--Pay again!
It was time to cut the turf--and I was in a mood for burning it too. I was done by Heath, but the impression on my fortune was not in the finished style. I now turned my attention to aquatics, and having been unfortunate at the One Tun, tried my luck in a vessel of twenty. I became a member of a Yacht Club, made matches which I lost--and sailed for a Cup at the Cowes’ Regatta, but carried away nothing but my own bowsprit. Other boats showed more speed, but mine most bottom; for after the match it upset, and I was picked up by a party of fishermen, who spared my life and took all I had, by way of teaching me, that a preserving is not a saving.--Pay again!
It was time to dispose of The Lucky Lass. I left her to the mate, with peremptory orders to make a sale of her;--an instruction he fulfilled by making all the sail on her he could, and disposing of her--by contract--to a rock, while he was threading the Needles. In the meantime I betook myself to the chase. Sir W. W. had just cut his pack, and I undertook to deal with the dogs:--but I found dog’s meat a dear item, though my friends killed my hunters for me, and I boil’d my own horses. The subscribers, moreover, were not punctual, and whatever differences fell out, I was obliged to make them up.--Pay again! At last I happened to have a dispute with a brother Nimrod as to the capability of his Brown and mine, and we agreed to decide their respective rates, as church rates, by a Steeple Chase. The wager was heavy. I rode for the wrong steeple--leapt a dozen gates--and succeeded in clearing my own pocket.--Pay again!