Gloriously, Max! gloriously! There were...

Gloriously, Max! gloriously! There were sixty horses in the field, all mettle to the bone: the start was a picture - away we went in a cloud - pell-mell - helter skelter - the fools first, as usual, using themselves up - we soon passed them - first your Kitty, then my Blueskin, and Craven's colt last. Then came the tug - Kitty skimmed the walls - Blueskin flew o'er the fences - the Colt neck and neck, and half a mile to nm - at last the Colt baulked a leap and went wild. Kitty and I had it all to ourselves - she was three lengths ahead as we breasted the last wall, six feet, if an inch, and a ditch on the other side. Now, for the first time, I gave Blueskin his head - Ha! Ha! - Away he flew like a thunderbolt - over went the filly - I over the same spot, leaving Kitty in the ditch - walked the steeple, eight miles in thirty minutes, and scarcely turned a hair.

London Assurance