24 FAMOUS EACING MEN. 



the lirst place, the Sorcerer's progeny being thus credited with three 

 races out of five. But Smolensko was to do more, for journeying 

 southwards to Epsom, he won his master's third Derby. A handsome 

 offer, by the way — £2,000, we beheve — was made to the worthy 

 baronet by a travelling showman to allow Smolensko to be exhibited 

 up and down the country, but it was very properly rejected. This 

 was the culminating year of Sir Charles's good fortune, for he never 

 won another of the great three-year-old races. For the St. Leger, we 

 believe, he never tried, and in the One Thousand he never succeeded. 

 Although at this time in his seventy-third year, Sir Charles by no 

 means abandoned the turf, and indeed kept up his stables until 

 within a few months of his death, which took place on the 31st of 

 March, 1821, at his house in Pall Mall, he being then in his eighty- 

 first year. Sir Charles Bunbury's colours were pink and white stripes 

 with a black cap, though at that period caps of all colours were used, 

 as they are at the present time. Originally a black velvet cap, like 

 that of a huntsman, was the only cap in use on the turf, and the 

 costume was that of our own time. To Sir Charles the turf may be 

 said to owe the introduction of the system of running horses at two 

 years old — a system which was thought at the time to be fatal to the 

 speed and stoutness of the breed of English racehorses. Hitherto 

 the distance usually had been four miles, and never less than two, 

 and the weights carried generally 12st., seldom under 9st. 121bs. 

 Sir Charles Bunbury may be said to have brought into vogue the 

 fashion of riding short distances at light weights which prevails at 

 the present day, and has been carried to extremes which this dis- 

 tinguished old sportsman would probably never have approved of. 

 There are still some, laudatores temporis adi, who think we might go 

 back with advantage to the old style, which Sir Charles Bunbury did 

 his best to render obsolete, and would aboHsh two-year-old races 

 altogether. But they are few, and the majority of turfmen are of 

 opinion that the English racehorse has improved so greatly in speed 

 and stamina, that Eclipse and Flying Childers would be nowhere 

 in a modern Derby, and poor Diomed would be hardly ranked as a 

 decent plater. 



THE DUKES OF GEAFTON. 



AMONG- the honoured aristocratic names that have shed a lustre 

 round the turf of past days, few stand higher or more truly 

 deserve the veneration of the sportsman than that of Grafton. 

 Three who bore that title have been famous supporters of our great 

 national sport, and of these two have been winners of the Derby. 

 The owner of Whalebone^ — one of the most notable sires in the Stud 

 Book, whose blood is to be traced in the pedigrees of half the im- 

 portant winners of our own day — was the third duke, a nobleman 



