3S4 TURF. 



However ftrange and unpromifing this de-* 

 Jincaion may appear to the young and inex- 

 perienced fportfman, (who, having no guile 

 in his own difpofition, does not fufped: it 

 in others) yet the projected villanies ar^ fa 

 numerous, and refined to (o many different 

 degrees of deception, that in the prefent ftate 

 of /porting piirijicatmi^ it is ahnofl impolTi- 

 ble for any man to train and run a horfe, or 

 make a fmgle bet upon their fuccefs, with- 

 out falling into one of the innumerable 

 plots that will be laid for his deftrudion. 

 Exclufive of the experimental proofs we 

 Ihall have occafion to introduce in corro- 

 boration of this remark, it may not be out 

 of point to obferve, that a late noble Lord, 

 within my own memory, was fo well con- 

 vinced of this faft, that when in the abfo- 

 lute pofTeffion of a stable of winners, 

 be totally relinquiflied a purfuit of fo much 

 pleafure, and' fold off his ftud, rather than 

 continue the ftanding prey of premeditated 

 plunder ; convinced by long and attentive 

 experience, no moderate fortune or common 

 fagacity could fhield him from the joint 

 rapacity of dependents, who were to parti- 

 cipate 



