One horse broke his back, another was drowned, Multum-in-Parvo was cut all
to pieces, his rider had two ribs and a thumb broken, while Farmer
Slyfield's stackyard was fired by some of the itinerant tribe, and all its
uninsured contents destroyed--so that his landlord was not the only person
who suffered by the grand occasion.
Nor was this all, for Mr. Numboy, the coroner, hearing of Jack's death,
held an inquest on the body; and, having empanelled a matter-of-fact
jury--men who did not see the advantage of steeple-chasing, either in a
political, commercial, agricultural, or national point of view, and who,
having surveyed the line, and found nearly every fence dangerous, and the
wall and brook doubly so, returned a verdict of manslaughter against Mr.
Viney for setting it out, who was forthwith committed to the county gaol of
Limbo Castle for trial at the ensuing assizes, from whence let us join the
benevolent clerk of arraigns in wishing him a good deliverance.
Many of the hardy 'tips' sounded the loud trump of victory, proclaiming
that their innumerable friends had feathered their nests through their
agency; but Peeping Tom and Infallible Joe, and Enoch Wriggle, 'the
offending soul,' &c, found it convenient to bolt from their respective
establishments, carrying with them their large fire-screens, camp-stools,
and boards for posting up their lists, and setting up in new names in other
quarters; while the Hen Angel was shortly afterwards closed, and the
presentation-tureen made into 'white soup.
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