Explore "The Sporting Chance" by Claude Askew on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"It may be old-fashioned to drive a coach to the Derby, but I'll be in my coffin before I'll go down any other way!. Thus, perpetrating a characteristic "bull," spoke genial and popular "Old Rory," as he was known to the best part of the world -- Sir Roderick Macphane, to give him his true title.
A few minutes back he had handed over the ribbons to one of the grooms, who, with his fellow, was now busily engaged unharnessing the horses, four fine roans, as handsome a team as the heart of man could desire. "Old Rory" was a famous whip, and, in spite of his advancing years, a good all-round sportsman -- a master of hounds, a familiar figure on the race-course, and as good a judge of horse and dog flesh as any in the country. In his younger days he had been an intrepid rider at the hurdles, an amateur of more than common merit.