OVER A DISTANCE OF GROUND. 181 



punishing gallops at Findon or Myrtle Grove was attested by 

 the confidently anticipated, and well-backed victory of Don 

 Juan in 1883 ; and people do say that, had Marlborough not 

 been coughing, Plaisanterie would have gained no bloodless 

 victory in the Cambridgeshire of 1885, even if her number had 

 been hoisted at all. 



Before Julius in 1867 beat the record (long since out- 

 recorded) arid twenty-six horses by winning the Cesarewitch with 

 8 st. on his three-year-old back, he was tried the course with 

 Silenus, a good sort of third-class horse of his own age, and 

 one who had some pretensions to staying power he had won 

 a mile-and-a-half race at Lewes and to him Julius presented a 

 stone and a beating of fifty yards from the Bushes home, which 

 would have been at least equivalent to putting Silenus into the 

 Cesarewitch at six stone. 



The following story is a remarkable, perhaps almost unique, 

 instance of private trials over long distances, checked in the 

 first place by a trial in public, and afterwards triumphantly vin- 

 dicated by the actual race. 



In 1866, the year in which Lecturer won the Cesarewitch, 

 Mr. F. Swindells owned a horse called Abergeldie, which was 

 entered for that event, and which he fancied could stay ; but 

 having nothing of his own to try with, he sought the assistance 

 of a member of the Jockey Club, Mr. W. G. Craven, who being 

 a friend of the Duke of Beaufort, obtained permission to have 

 his mare Gomera, four years old, over from Danebury to Henry 

 Goater's stables at Littleton, and to try her with Abergeldie. A 

 three-year-old filly called Proserpine, up to that time con- 

 sidered a half-miler, and handicapped in the Cesarewitch at 

 5 st. 7 Ibs., was put in to make the running as fast and as far 

 as she could over two miles and a quarter on Winchester 

 Racecourse. She won easily from Gomera, Abergeldie being 

 beaten a long way ; he could only stay a mile and a quarter, 

 and, as history relates, won the City and Suburban in the 

 following year. Mr. Swindells then voted Proserpine worth 

 backing, and backed her accordingly. 



