182 CLEVELAND AND ESKDALE. 



prizes lie won would fill a page or two, for he 

 was seven or eight years before the public, and 

 continued to win prizes to the last. At Darlington 

 he won seven years in succession, an unprecedented 

 performance, and one that is not likely to be 

 repeated. It was a big performance when he 

 won in the four-year-old class at the iTorkshire 

 Show at York. There were fifty-four entries, 

 forty-seven of them appeared in the ring, 

 and the judges had a hard time of it before they 

 got the awards made. Joe Bennett also won the 

 Easingwold Hunt Cup, a troj)hy of which his 

 owner was justly proud, for as far as quality was 

 concerned it was, perhaps, the best field he ever 

 met. When the Royal was at Hull he had a 

 capital day, for not only did he win the handsome 

 prize awarded in his class, but he also won the 

 champion prize of one hundred guineas for the 

 best hunter in the yard. Flags were fiying over 

 the " Rudd's Arms " at Marton, and there was 

 great rejoicing at the success of their favourite. 

 A little hitch took place at Hull, however, whilst 

 the rejoicings were being held at Marton, and for 

 a short time Joe Bennett's owner had anything 

 but a pleasant time of it. For some time show- 

 yard scandal had whispered and hinted that 

 somewhere and somehow there was a screw loose 

 with the crack, and at Hull these malicious 

 whispers took form, and a formal objection was 

 lodged against him on the ground that he was a 



