GREAT SCOT AND HIS OWNER 



of the fancy. I could see that each was so dead 

 serious that there was nothing to do but either to 

 retract and be thought a wobbler, or to take a chance 

 and be emphatic. I chose the latter and added as I 

 left them : " If you read your Express to-morrow you 

 will see that I do not take back a word of it." 



So in went the whole conversation, and they were 

 tickled to death and quite amused that no names were 

 mentioned. Spate won at a hundred to seven, and 

 furthermore Great Scot, who was given for a place, 

 finished third. Many who knew the owner of the 

 latter horse, Sir A. A. Apcar, then Mr Apcar, always 

 regretted that he did not before his death make a long- 

 promised visit to England. He won any number of 

 Viceroy's Cups in Calcutta. Great Scot was bought 

 by Mr Apcar in Australia ; the horse was by Lochiel, 

 and had an extraordinary career in India, not being 

 sent over here until he was an aged horse. He had a 

 splendid stride, but could never be got to quite his 

 best, although he won a race at Lewes, ran second in 

 the Derby Cup, and third at Manchester. Mr Apcar, 

 by the way, was a great ornament to the turf in India. 

 Possessed of much wealth, he could buy what he wished, 

 although he never paid excessive prices. He was a 

 prominent member of the Armenian community in 

 Calcutta, and was the first cousin of Mrs Paul Valetta, 

 mother of a prominent member of the Junior Bar, 

 Mr J. P. Valetta. A sister of the latter, by the way, is 

 Mrs Harold Chapin, wife of the rising dramatist. I 

 might say that I have followed the career of the young 

 counsel I have just named with considerable interest 

 for many years. From the reports one reads in the 

 papers, Mr Valetta has any amount of work ; but here 

 is a man well acquainted, like the late Mr Justice 

 Bucknill, the late Lord Russell of Killowen, and many 



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