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MEMOIES OF JOSEPH GKBLLLDI. 113
wards of sixty pigeons, all of the very first order and beauty,
and many of them highly valuable : in proof of which, he notes down with great pride a bet, concerning one pigeon of peculiar talents, made with Mr. Lambert, himself a pigeon-fancier.
This Mr. Lambert being, as Gximaldi says, " like myself, a
pigeon-fancier, bnt, unlike myself, a confirmed boaster," took it into his head to declare and pronounce his birds superior in all respects to those in any other collection. This comprehensive declaration immediately brought all the neighbouring pigeon- breeders up in arms ; and Grirnaldi, taking up the gauntlet on behalf of the inmates of the " dorm'er," accepted a bet offered by Lambert, that there was no pigeon in his flight capable of ac- complishing twenty miles in twenty minutes. The sum at stake was twenty pounds. The money was posted, the bird exhibited, the day on which the match should come off named, and the road over which the bird was to fly agreed upon—the course being from the twentieth mile-stone on the Great North Eoad to Grimaldi's house. At six o'clock in the •morning, the bird was consigned to the care of a friend, with instructions to throw it up precisely as the clock struck twelve, at the appointed mile- stone, near St. Albans; and the friend and the pigeon, accom- panied by a gentleman on behalf of the opposite party, started off, all parties concerned first setting their watches by Clerken- well church. It was a very dismal day, the snow being very deep on the ground, and a heavy sleet falling, very much in- creasing the odds against the bird, the weather, of course, having great effect, and the snow frequently blinding it. There was no stipulation made, however, for fine weather; so at twelve o'clock the two parties, accompanied by several friends, took up their station in the dormer. In exactly nineteen minutes after- wards, the pigeon alighted on the roof of the house. An offer of twenty pounds was immediately made for the bird, but it was declined.
The pigeons, however, did not always keep such good hours,
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