Old Melbourne Memories: Second Edition, RevisedBoldrewood, Rolf
History
Old Melbourne Memories: Second Edition, Revised
Boldrewood, Rolf
Frontier and pioneer life -- Australia -- Melbourne (Vic.); Victoria -- Description and travel; Victoria -- Social life and customs
The pace is now as good as we can make it. We are all at the second
fence from home. The grey and the chestnut, almost neck and neck, are
taking their leaps together, "Trifle" with a slight lead. We are all
going our best. It has come to the do-or-die stage, and every man sets
his teeth and rides for his life. We are in full view of the grand
stand too. I have been taking a pull at my grey, and manage, by a rush,
to send him up into respectable prominence, when Rawdon Greene's horse
hits a top-rail a terrible clout, which flies up and disturbs
"Thur'mpogue's" sensitive nerves as he measures his distance for the
leap. Half looking back, half jumping, he strikes the rail close to the
post. It bends, but does not break. The big horse balances for a moment,
and then falls, rolling heavily over his rider. "Thur'mpogue" rises in a
moment, and makes a beeline--head up and rein flying--for the nearest
road to Daisy Hill--a practice "quite frequent" with him whenever he
happens to get loose. His rider does not rise, or indeed move for a few
minutes. He has broken a rib, and, like Mr. Tupman, had all the
temporary supply of breath knocked out of his body. The rest of the
field finish creditably close, Molesworth Greene's grey being beaten on
the post by the "Master of the Rolls."
We did not wait there long, every one being anxious about the precise
amount of damage sustained by "Emun Mhor," or Long Edmund, as we heard
he was called by the tenantry of the estate after his return to Ireland.
Knowing that if he did not die on the field, he would naturally be
anxious for the safety of such a horse as "Thur'mpogue," and an
extremely swell Wilkinson and Kidd saddle, I started off on the track,
and was lucky enough to run him down just as he was preparing to cross
the Deep Creek. As I led him back I encountered Jimmy Ellis, also
running the trail like a black tracker, with his head so low to the
ground that he did not see me till I was close on top of him. When we
returned to the scene of our contest the wounded warrior was being
conveyed to the house in Mrs. Anderson's barouche, doubtless receiving
an amount of sympathy which fully compensated for the pain and
inconvenience of his mishap.
He was not able to join in the dance which delightfully finished up the
day's entertainment, or, indeed, to leave his room; but he was an
interesting personage thenceforth, with his arm in a sling, and gained
prestige and consideration during the remainder of the revels.
The worst of these brief sketches, roughed off at intervals snatched
from a busy life when
Mournful memory sitteth singing
Of the days that are no more,
is that melancholy reflections will obtrude themselves. How many of
one's comrades who made the joy of that pleasant time are no more! Of
that same cheery gathering, how many lie low--how small a party should
we now make could we meet--how different would be our greetings!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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