SUBSEQUENT REVERSES 97 



his account, which heretofore was always paid with 

 business-like promptitude. Everything before so cor- 

 rect, was now stated to be wrong, and most of the 

 items challenged, though they differed in nothing from 

 former accounts. Among these was disputed the charge 

 of one guinea for the boys riding in trials, on the ground, 

 he said, that the then Duke of Richmond only paid his 

 boys five shillings each for riding in trials ; yet other 

 trainers charged the regulation price of two guineas. 

 Many other items even of a more trivial nature formed the 

 subject of a fierce and prolonged dispute ; but in the 

 end his lordship had to pay the account as it was de- 

 livered, and the cost of a heavy lawsuit into the bargain ; 

 which can scarcely be regarded as a clever performance 

 on his part. 



As to the reasons for his leaving Danebury, I think I 

 have pretty conclusively shown the actual facts. And 

 how strange it is to find that the man who devoted the 

 whole of his energy in the latter part of his life to ruin 

 another, should by that very action have ruined himself. 

 But it is true. For it will be easy to show that it was 

 the first step to the bitter disappointment which drove 

 him distracted from the turf altogether. It was said, 

 and widely believed, that he gave up racing in order 

 to have more leisure for the earnest prosecution of his 

 Parliamentary duties. If it were so, it should be re- 

 corded in his favour ; but, unfortunately, it is a fiction. 

 Ill-success in racing drove him from the turf, and de- 

 stroyed his peace of mind if he ever had any after 

 leaving Danebury. The successes of the stable he had 

 abandoned dealt the blows that destroyed him. The 

 victories of Pyrrhus the First, Mendicant, and Hero, in 

 all of which my father was deeply interested, first under- 

 mined his self-confidence, followed up as they were by 



7 



