SIR CHARLES BUNBURY. 23 



gentleman would start against him. Sam, however, retorts with 

 efifect on Sir Charles by quoting the in-and-out running of some of 

 the baronet's own horses, as, for example, Bellario, at Newmarket, in 

 1770, when he was beaten easily one day, and beat better horses the 

 next, on which occasion, says Chifney, it was the cant phrase at New- 

 market that Sir Charles said Bellario had " the headache" the first 

 day. The same thing may be remarked of another great horse owned 

 by Sir Charles Bunbury, namely Sorcerer, who, at the Newmarket 

 October, in 1780, was first defeated by a plater, but afterwards 

 ran a capital race in good company and won easily. In the latter 

 part of the century the baronet had purchased the famous stallion. 

 Whisky, a son of the blind Saltram and grandson of Eclipse, and he 

 succeeded Diomed as the Grrand Sultan of the Barton Hall harem. 

 One of his early loves was Young Giantess, who bore to him a 

 daughter named Eleanor, destined to be made famous indeed by 

 achieving a double event that had never before been accomplished, 

 and has only once been repeated, namely by Blink Bonny, fifty-six 

 years later. This was in 1801, when the grand-daughter of Diomed 

 and Saltram emulated the fame of her grandsire by winning the 

 Derby with Saunders on her back from ten competitors, whilst two 

 days later she put the seal upon her fame by winning the Oaks, with 

 the same jockey up. A good story, by the way, is told of Sir Charles's 

 training groom on this occasion. The poor fellow, whose name was 

 Cox, was taken seriously ill just before the Epsom races of 1801, and, 

 as he appeared to be at the point of death his friends thought it 

 right to send for the clergyman of the parish, to administer religious 

 consolation to the dying man. The parson came and found Cox 

 speechless, but fi-om various contortions which the man made the 

 reverend gentleman conceived the idea that the moribund groom 

 had something on his mind which he wished to confess. Zealously 

 and earnestly the clergyman exhorted him to relieve his mind and 

 ease his conscience by disburdening himself of his agonising secret. 

 At last, with a desperate effort, summoning all his expiring 

 energies to his aid, the groom rose into a sitting posture in the bed, 

 his eyes glared, the death-damp stood in beads on his brow, he 

 raised his hand impressively — the parson bent forward eagerly to 

 listen — and then in low, hollow, ghastly tones, the penitent breathed 



out the words — "Depend upon it, that Eleanor is a h 1 of a 



mare ! " then fell back and expired. The dying man's words were, 

 as we have seen, prophetic. 



Twelve years later Sir Charles achieved another unprecedented 

 double event, though it has since been several times repeated. 

 This was in 1813, in which year, for the first time, the subscribers 

 to the Derby were more than fifty. The Two Thousand Guineas 

 Stakes were first run for in 1809, when Mr. Wilson won with 

 Wizard, a son of Sir Charles's Sorcerer. In 1811 another son of 

 Sorcerer won the race for Mr. Andrews, and in 1813 yet another son of 

 this sire, belonging to Sir Charles and named Smolensko, secured 



