24 M ALTON. 



ambition was at length about to be gratified. The 

 commission on Blair Athol Avas worked during 

 the Two Thousand week, and great was the 

 tribulation in certain quarters when it became 

 known that Mr. I 'Anson had such a flyer. 



There was some heavy betting in those days, 

 and one well-known operator stood to win over 

 £30,000 on Lord Glasgow's horse at the time the 

 Two Thousand was run, yet he managed to have 

 a winning account on the Monday after the Derby. 



Our first visit to Malton was paid shortly after 

 Blair Athol's defeat in the Grand Prix, and we 

 well remember the indignation felt and expressed 

 by the sporting inhabitants at the treatment 

 which Chaloner had experienced at the hands of 

 some French roughs. The late Mr. Smithson, a 

 famous sportsman, and the proprietor of the 

 Malton Messenger, roundly asserted that Chaloner 

 durst not have won if he could, so strong was the 

 feeling against the English horse, and that in his 

 opinion he could have won if he had had fair play. 

 In the latter respect he was most probably right, 

 but it can scarcely be seriously affirmed, after this 

 lapse of time, that his chance of victory Avas in 

 any way affected by the brutal behaviour of the 

 gamins of Paris. In the first place the horse was 

 not started from home soon enough, and had never 

 been fairly off his legs for nearly a week. He 

 was, consequently, very stale, and was nothing 

 like the horse that had cantered home in front of 



