THE FRAUD OF A DERBY 



Colonel Peel, brother of the Prime Minister of 

 the day- 

 Jonathan Peel was a notable figure on the Turf. 

 He was the fifth son of the first Sir Robert Peel, 

 whose baronetcy had been conferred upon him 

 by Mr. Pitt in recognition of a large subscription 

 to the Loyalty Loan and his equipment of a 

 regiment of volunteers at a crisis in the French 

 War. Possessing more geniality than his father 

 and more manners than his eminent brother, he 

 joined at a very early age a marching regiment 

 as an ensign. He soon entered upon the sport 

 of racing, and, as often happens, his betting 

 ventures as a youth were in striking contrast to 

 the modest wagers of his riper years. It is told 

 of him that he was once a guest at a regimental 

 mess when the presiding officer blustered that 

 he would take 5,000 to 100 about a horse for the 

 forthcoming St. Leger, knowing that it was quite 

 unhkely that any officer of the regiment would 

 accept the offer. To the gallant Colonel's con- 

 sternation, a voice from the end of the mess table 

 called out, " Done, sir ; I will lay you fifty hundreds 

 to one." The layer was Lieutenant Peel, and wry 

 was the face of Sir John Byng at being snapped 

 up by a subaltern in this cool fashion. However, 

 the honour of the regiment required that the bet 

 should be booked. Peel won some small races 

 with his two-year-olds in 1823, and in 1824 Fille 

 de Joie, a filly he had bred, ran second in the 

 Oaks to Lord Jersey's Cobweb.^ In the year of 



' The Dictionary of National Biography states that Peel's filly 

 was named Phantom ! This blunder on the part of the compiler 

 of the memoir of General Peel is due apparently to the fact that 



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