M ALTON. 25 



a big field at Epsom less than a fortnight before. 

 Then the course is an awkward one, or was then, 

 and Chaloner went the wrong course and had to 

 retrace his steps. This naturally caused him to 

 lose a lot of ground, but he thought he could have 

 made it up if the horse had not been so stale.''' 



But if the indiof nation of the Malton men was 

 roused by the treatment their favourite horse and 

 jockey had received in Paris, it w^as exceeded by 

 their consternation when John Osborne dropped 

 from the clouds on The Miner and beat him by a 



"'■' There was at that time a considerable amount of feeling dis- 

 played against English horses that ran in France, and the howls 

 of execration with which they were greeted when they won could 

 only he exceeded by the unseemly display of elation which took 

 place when they were beaten. This jealousy was strongly accen- 

 tuated, and much bitter feeling was caused, by an unfortunate 

 cii-cumstance which took place in connection with the Oaks, which 

 had been won by Count de La Grange's Fille de I'Air. Rightly 

 or wrongly the public had conceived the idea that this filly, who had 

 started a good favourite for the Two Thousand and finished in the 

 ruck, had been pulled in that race, the opinion was held by many 

 men of high standing on the Turf, and the circumstance was 

 freely commented on in the press. 



After Fille de I'Air won the Oaks she had to be escorted back 

 to scale by a body of mounted police and a volunteer guard of 

 prize fighters, and so determined were the attempts of the mob 

 to obtain possession of the saddle that it seemed as if a riot was 

 inevitable. Indeed had it not been for Mr. Payne, who rescued 

 it at considerable risk to himself, the saddle would have been 

 broken to pieces. Custance, who was riding Mr. Joice's Antoin- 

 ette, and whose colours (dark blue, red sleeves, white cap), were 

 very similar to those of Count de La Grange, was mistaken for 

 Edwards. When the mob surrounded his mare with threatening 

 looks, he said, with the greatest self-possession, " Let me alone, 



