Bredin on Running & Training

130 RUNNING AND TRAINING. This cup had a lid ; on the lid was a figure of an athlete in running costume, but who gave one the impression that he was endeavouring to run when more than slightly inebriated. The cover was shortly deposited in an empty trunk and the cup served for some time as a waste-paper basket in the corner of the room; but the more I looked at that cup the more I came to loathe it, and a feeling of resentment at being caught "for a mug" at length nerved me sufficiently to send it to the secretary of the A. A. A. with a protest against its having been presented as a prize of the value before mentioned. I am absolutely in the dark concerning the methods usually employed by the governing body under such circumstances, but I happened to learn that this cup was sent for valuation to a leading London silversmith, who said he would not make a similar one under (if I remember rightly) twenty-three guineas. I should be the last person to question such an opinion ; in fact, I should be most inclined to believe that no self-respecting firm could be forced to produce such an article under anything less than six months' hard. However, back came the cup, and being hidden away in an attic, I endeavoured to forget its existence-an easy matter had not the fact of my possessing this white elephant become generally known, and facetious athletic acquaintances were profuse in their congratulations and professed to envy my good fortune, until one day I received a letter from a sportsman who actually yearned for the possession of my pewter work of art; for, writing apparently in his sober senses, he offered-in case I was not prepared to give it away, great Scott !-to purchase it. We did