CHAPTERS FROM TURF HISTORY 



struggle with the sophistries of Peel in the cockpit 

 of pohtics.^ 



Again, there is the case of the late Duke of 

 Devonshire. To win the classic races of the Turf 

 he devoted his energies and his fortune. He 

 gained one — the One Thousand Guineas with Bel- 

 phoebe in 1877. The statesman who refused three 

 times to be Prime Minister, who in 1873 " had 

 come to detest office," and who wrote of the 

 possible succession to Gladstone that " it will 

 really be a great relief to be out of it," would 

 gladly have given his life instead of his leisure 

 to the prosecution of the sport of racing. In the 

 House of Commons he yawned in the course of 

 his own speech : at Newmarket he was never 

 bored. " Sometimes," he said, " I dream that I 

 am leading in the winner of the Derby, but I am 

 afraid it will never be anything but a dream." 

 Reluctantly, he thought that his destiny summoned 

 him to public life and office, and so he obeyed. 

 But that he cared greatly for the Turf and ac- 

 knowledged its claim is well known. The dates for 

 Cabinets were often fixed to suit his racing engage- 

 ments, and he sometimes cancelled important Com- 

 mittees when they clashed with such appointments. 

 There is extant a letter from the late Lord Salis- 

 bury to a colleague in which he laments the in- 

 convenience caused by " Hartington being obliged 

 to go to Newmarket to ascertain whether one 

 quadruped can run a little faster than another ! " 



Lastly, it may be noted that year after year 

 generations of the House of Stanley have striven 

 to win the great classic of the racing season, but 



* See Political Portraits, by Charles Whibley. 

 116 



