An Unexpected Guest.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 10, 12 January 1870, Page 7

An Unexpected Guest.

A correspondent of the Field writes :- " One of the most remarkable instances of ' getting up stairs,' as far as the eqnine race is concerned, occurred at Jones's Railway Hotel, at Oxford, on Thursday night, Sept. 2. A string of yearlings belonging to Mr J Merry, M.P., arrived by train at the above-named city, and were led to the Railway Hotel by the people in charge. One of the most valuable of the lot and certainly one that does not belie her pedigree, if, as I was told, she is a daughter of Rambling Katie—escaped from the hands of the stud groom, and, attracted by the lights from the Hotels, or wishing to consult the lawyer whose room she ultimately succeeded in reaching, galloped down a narrow passage, 53ft in length, into the hall of the hotel—after dashing her head through the window of the bar-parlour, much to the consternation of the inmates who were quietly enjoying their evening repast—then through the hall up the first flight of stairs (20 in number) into the corridor or psssage of the hotel upon which the doors of the bed-chambers opened. It being late at night (11 o'clock) only one of the bed-room doors being unfastened, and this happened to be the one of our friend the lawyer—No. 7.—into which the excited animal rushed, jumped on the huge old-fashioned bedstead, tearing the bed furniture to ribbons, and then contrived to get her leg through a cane-bottomed chair, and in her efforts to free herself of this incumbrance, demolished nearly all the fur nitnre in the room. In the meantime the stud groom ran up stairs, caught hold of her by the tail, and got her down, where she was held by three or four other people who had been attracted by the noise. The question then arose how to get her down stairs. This was accomplished in the following manner :—The whole of the shutters belonging to the hotel were laid on the stairs and fastened, her legs were tied tightly together, some rugs and mats were placed under her back, and by main force she was dragged down the staircase, and safely landed in the hall, then taken out of the front door into the street, where she was released from her bondage, and led to a loose box to enjoy a straw instead ot a feather bed. Strange to say, no damage was done to the animal, except 20 or 30 skin-deep wounds, the principal of which were caused by the glass broken in the bar-parlour window. One curious circnmstance, however, remains to be told. No. 6 bedroom was occupied by an Irishman who, being a martyr to rheumatic gout, had been compelled to crawl up-stairs by means of a stick in one hand, and holding on to tho balustrade with the other. Such, however, was the terror excit«d by the unearthly row in the next apartment, that with three bounds he sprang down the staircase into the hall. From that moment the rheumatism left him ; he is now perfcctlysour.rl, and can be called on to vouch for the fact.