Publication
These lines are the heading to “In the Pride of his Youth” in Plain Tales from the Hills collected under Chapter Headings in Definitive Verse and later collections.
Notes on the text
Cutting it here means ‘not doing his utmost’
a cur is an ill-bred and usually worthless dog, a useless creature.
rated and chidden are two words for ‘scolded’ or ‘reproved’.
A weight-cloth has pockets for weights designed to handicap a race horse as described in “The Broken-Link Handicap” (Page 165, line 10) See also “The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin” .
[J.McG.]
©John McGivering 2020 All rights reserved