SIR JOSEPH HAWLEY. 99 



well break the Marquis, and the rest of the young plungers. Indeed, 

 Blue Gown (who died not long since on his way over to America) is 

 the horse with which Sir Joseph Haivley's name will always be most 

 closely associated in the public mind and memory. For he was em- 

 phatically the public horse, though his owner preferred the chance of 

 another of his string, and never appears to have appreciated the colt's 

 merit, for he let him go in March 1870 for £5,000 to the Prussians. 

 He ran the colt out of pure sportsmanlike feeling. When he knew 

 in the winter, that the public were on Blue Gown to a man, he said, 

 " Then they shall have a start ; " but he never liked the horse, and 

 did not win a shilling in bets by the success of his colt, though if 

 Rosicrucian or Green Sleeve had won he would have been a large 

 winner. The entire stakes, not far short of £6,000, were presented to 

 Wells the jockey ! The Derby was called sensational, but the most 

 exciting episode in Blue Gown's turf career was at Doncaster, when 

 as a two-year-old he carried off the Champagne Stakes. There were 

 twelve starters, Mr. Merry's horse was left at the post, and Sir 

 Joseph Hawley's colt came in first, but did not get the stakes. 

 Wells, no longer the " Tiny " of old days, could not ride the 

 weight. Other jockeys knew this, and when he returned to scale 

 he was watched. Watson seized the beam, and appealed to Mr. 

 Chaplin one of the Stewards. That gentleman ordered Wells to 

 sit in the scale till the Admiral could be summoned. Then 

 followed a mauvais quart cUheure. The Admiral came and pro- 

 nounced against the winner for overweight. Mr. Chaplin inquired 

 what impost Blue Govtn had carried. "No, no," replied the 

 Dictator, " this is bad enough — the public need not know how much 

 Hawley's horse really carried." As a matter of fact Blue Gown 

 had won carrying as nearly as possible 9st., and this marvellous 

 performance, the public who stuck to him through evil report and 

 good report, never forgot. Among other races which Sir Joseph 

 won in that eventful year 1868, were the Criterion and Middle 

 Park Plate with Pero Gomez, the Royal Hunt Cup with Satyr, 

 the Ascot Cup with Blue Gown, the Champagne Stakes with 

 Morna, and the Liverpool Cup with The Palmer, while it should 

 not be forgotten that Blue Gown struggled into second place in 

 the Cambridgeshire, under the crushing penalty of 9st. In 1869 

 Pero Gomez only got second to Pretender for the Derby, but 

 turned the tables on the Northern horse in the St Leger, this 

 being another great fight between North and South, decided 

 this time in favour of Sir .Joseph and the Southrons. 



" Dangerous Sir Joseph " he was now dubbed, and the epithet was 

 not only true of his horses but of himself when provoked, as Dr. 

 Shorthouse, of Carshalton, found to his cost. For that eccentric 

 journalist, the first founder of the Sporting Times, which his suc- 

 cessor, Mr. John Corlett, has transformed into one of the most 

 popular of sporting journals, was convicted of libelling the Kentish 

 baronet, and sent to prison, there to expiate his offences. Nor 



