384 TURF. 



However strange and unpromising this de- 

 lineation may appear to the young and inex- 

 perienced sportsman, (who having no guile 

 in his own disposition, does not suspect it 

 in others) yet the projected vilhanies are so 

 numerous, and refined to so many different 

 degrees of deception, that in the present state 

 oi sporting purification, it is ahuost impossible 

 for any man to train and run a horse, or 

 make a single bet upon tlieir success, with- 

 out falling into one of the innumerable 

 plots that will be laid for his destruction. 

 Exclusive of the experimental proofs we 

 shall have occasion to introduce in corro- 

 boration of this remark, it may not be out 

 of point to observe, that a late noble lord,* 

 within my own memory, was so well con- 

 vinced of this fact, that, when in the abso- 

 lute possession of a stable of winners, 

 he totally relinquished a pursuit of so much 

 pleasure, and sold off his stud, rather than 

 continue the standing prey of premeditated 

 plunder; convinced by long and attentive 

 experience, no moderate fortinic or common 

 sagacity could shield him from the joint 

 rapacity of dependant^, wlio w(^re to parti- 



* Onflow, 



