THE RING, THE TURF, AND PARLIAMENT 



advice of Scott, who knew the filly was a lucky 

 winner, the challenge was decUned. Gully was said 

 to have lost £45,000 over the event, but he paid 

 his losses without a murmur. 



This race for the St. Leger was made famous 

 by a poem from the pen of the Professor of Poetry 

 at Oxford. Sir Francis Doyle wrote of Matilda, 

 trained, as he solemnly told his lecture-room, 

 *' by that immortal man Scott, not the mere poet 

 and novelist " (how amusing those lectures must 

 have been !) : 



With birdlike dart shoots clean away,» 

 And by half a length has gained the day. 



These lines were criticized with academic irreverence 

 by a distinguished writer and sportsman who, like 

 the Professor, was a Fellow of All Souls. The 

 critic refused to admit the verisimilitude of " the 

 birdlike dart." " Did ever human being," he asked 

 with conscientious accuracy of detail, " see the 

 horse who could make running over the mile and 

 three-quarters of the Leger course and then muster 

 speed for ' a birdhke dart ' ? " Probably, as he 

 suggests, the nearest approach to such a finish 

 was that in which Throstle in the St. Leger of 1894, 

 after sulking and shirking in the earher stages of 

 the race, swooped down upon Ladas and Matchbox 

 who had run themselves to a standstill in their 

 desperate duel. 



But to return to Mameluke. At Newmarket the 

 following season he won two races for his owner, 

 and in 1829 was second for the Ascot Cup. Subse- 

 quently Gully sold the horse to Mr. Theobald, 



I Thus in the edition of 1883 ; but in the original version of 1841 

 it runs : " Just on the post she springs away." 



93 



