CHAPTERS FROM TURF HISTORY 



he had bought Andover, a bay son of Bay Middleton, 

 the Derby winner of 1836, and had tried him to 

 be a certainty for the Epsom race. John Scott 

 trained a good favourite in Dervish, and the field 

 also included the Rothschild horse King Tom, 

 Gully's own horse The Hermit, who had won the 

 Two Thousand, and Knight of St. George, subse- 

 quently the winner of the St. Leger. Andover, 

 who was a lengthy, shortlegged, and handsome 

 horse, won very cleverly in the lilac jacket. The 

 racing chronicle of that day thus concludes an 

 account of the race : " Even losers sympathized 

 in the glorious triumph for such a fine old sports- 

 man as Mr. Gully in the evening of his life." 



At the Reform dissolution Gully was pressed 

 to come forward as a candidate for Pontefract, 

 a constituency which returned two Members, but 

 he declined the invitation. However, when Par- 

 liament was dissolved in December 1832 he was 

 again invited by a numerous deputation, and after 

 some hesitation he consented to stand, and with 

 Mr. Jerningham was returned without opposition. 

 His opponents, it was said, left the field because 

 they had no chance before a parcel of Gr^'hounds 

 with a dash of Fox m them — a punning and sport- 

 ing metaphor which was doubtless appreciated by 

 one of the elected candidates. Pontefract at that 

 date was under the Tory influence of Lord Mex- 

 borough, a peer whose political pressure at an 

 election was strongly resented by Gully, who stood 

 in the Liberal interest. At the election of 1835 

 Gully headed the poll, and had the satisfaction 

 of beating Lord Mexborough's heir into the second 

 place, the other Tory candidate, Mr. Raphael, 



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