CHAPTERS FROM TURF HISTORY 



Padwicks, and in their company he played his 

 part in the Turf's drama with courage and resolu- 

 tion. He knew their ways ; he understood their 

 cupidities and resentments ; he conformed to 

 their canon of racing ethics. Doubtless he was 

 no finished example of moral excellence, but he 

 had an honest and substantial shrewdness. He 

 had a cool brain and iron nerve, and his judgment 

 was rarely coloured by prejudice. While he was 

 conscious of his own limitations, his sagacity and 

 power of penetration led him to a correct appraise- 

 ment of the men with whom he had to deal. He 

 accomplished his main purposes. He had been 

 the champion of the Ring. His judgment of men 

 and horses was as fine as Lord George Bentinck 

 once boasted that his was. But, more fortunate 

 than that eminent person. Gully twice led a Derby 

 winner up the little sacred enclosure to the weighing- 

 room. At the time that he entered Parliament 

 that political portent, the Nonconformist Conscience, 

 was making its appearance, and as a domestic 

 effervescence was beginning to trouble Ministers of 

 the Reform era. Although it had not yet been 

 obliged to decide on the political inconvenience 

 of the late Mr. Parnell's moral indiscretion, and 

 had not come to hesitate about the propriety of 

 a financial speculation which involved a Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer of its own religious persuasion, 

 it was, and still is, pleased to consider itself of 

 the school of Charles James Fox, and to hold in 

 reverence the memory of that soiled gamester 

 who divided his time between women and the 

 dice-box. It regarded with horror such a career 

 as that of the Member for Pontefract ; but while 



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