230 ikings of tbe 1bunting*f iel& 



' the Squire,' the owner of CHnker told Dick to follow in 

 his track, and to ford the brook for the purpose of saving 

 his horse. These tactics, however, had quite the contrary 

 effect to what was anticipated, as the ' following ' only 

 made ' the Squire ' more determined, and the wading 

 gave him a good lead, which he got by jumping over ; 

 and, discovering a gap in an awkward corner of a field, 

 he won, but it was a close shave, for the two horses took 

 the last fence together, and had not Clinker fallen the 

 result might have been different. 



But 'the Squire's' connection with horses was not 

 confined to steeplechasing and hunting ; he also dabbled 

 with the Turf ; and I am bound to say that his career as 

 a Turfite was not altogether creditable to him. He was 

 mixed up with the notorious Ludlow scandal, in which 

 Beardsworth and a whole gang of scoundrels were 

 concerned. Honest John Gully walked up to Osbald- 

 eston in the ' Salutation ' at Doncaster, and bluntly ac- 

 cused him of ' buying horses to sell the public,' then 

 roundly charged him with having bought Ludlow to 

 make things safe for Fang. Of course there was a 

 fearful row. The hot-tempered Squire sent a challenge to 

 Gully, and there was a report that they met next day, 

 pistol in hand, at twelve paces, when Gully received a 

 bullet which pierced his hat, and actually cut a lane 

 through his thick hair. But, circumstantial as the 

 report was, it had no foundation in fact. That a challenge 

 was sent is true enough, but the difference was amic- 

 ably settled without a shot being fired. Not so, however, 

 in the case of Lord George Bentinck ; then powder really 

 was burned. The Squire had purchased a horse named 

 Rush, which, owing to a fictitious trial, was very favour- 

 ably handicapped at Heaton Park races. The horse ran 



