A REAL STUttNER AT A CHORUS* 59 



soon reached the coveted dignity of a professional. He 

 was in his calling reputable, and made a large book. 

 He was well known from his ungainly figure and sten- 

 torian voice. He could be heard shouting all over the 

 ring, ' I'll lay against the favourite : two monkeys to 

 one against anything !' in a thundering tone. Yet his 

 voice was a musical one, and he was fond of singing. 

 Of the possession of the gift, some proof has reached us 

 in an account of a party given by Gully at Newmarket. 

 ' Pedley,' so it runs, ' in due course roared out like old 

 Boreas, subdued to a baritone, " The Cats on the House- 

 tops are Mewing, Love." Gully lighted a cigar, Bill 

 Scott a clay, the latter remarking that if Pedley was 

 not audible at Cambridge it was not for want of bellows, 

 and that he was a real stunner at a chorus.' 



With the acute sagacity of all his class, Pedley was 

 never known to lay more than the proper odds, except 

 in the case of ' sickness.' Then he would be a little 

 more liberal in his terms ; sometimes, indeed, even to 

 rashness in desperate cases. He had several horses, 

 which he trained at Danebury, and won the Derby 

 with Cossack in 1847. The victory appears to have 

 done him but a temporary service, as he came to grief 

 shortly afterwards. I learned he was poor quite acci- 

 dentally. I saw him at Chester in Our Mary Ann's 

 year, 1870, and he asked me what I would advise him 

 to back. I told him to have 100 on her, as I thought 

 she would win, and was worth the investment. With 

 mournful significance he replied, ' I wish I could ;' and 

 added, * Things now with me are very different from 

 what they used to be.' After the race he came and 

 heartily thanked me. He had won 500, which he 

 took to a pony, as he could afford to stand to lose no 

 more, and it had saved him. This was the last time I 



