GENERAL PEEL. 123 



lived to see the arrival of a time when half the racehorses in England 

 take their gallops in the neighbourhood of the little town whereat so 

 many of his happiest hours were spent. The knoll upon which he 

 often stood, gazing with an eye that nothing could escape upon the 

 struggling horses as they streamed " Across the Flat," no longer 

 affords an unbroken view of the many races which finish at the end 

 of the Rowley Mile. A huge stand, strangely out of harmony with 

 the traditions of Newmarket as it was when the Greneral first knew it, 

 now intercepts the gaze of the spectator, and excludes him from a 

 sight of the finish. But it will be long before the memory of the 

 conversations in which, after a great race, the General loved to 

 indulge, will pass out of the minds of those who were privileged to 

 hear him. It was often said by those intimately acquainted with 

 the late Ur. Arnold, that a great general was spoilt when he took 

 holy orders and became a schoolmaster ; and in like manner an 

 incomparable describer of races, and of their salient incidents, 

 was lost to such fame as the pen, ably wielded, can bestow when 

 General Peel was born to the possession of a fortune which enabled 

 him to become the owner of Slane, Vulture, Tom, Orlando, Tadmor, 

 and Peter." 



In his youth General Peel was known as a spirited bettor ; and 

 there is a tradition that his earliest acquaintance with (feneral Sir 

 John Byng, father of the present Lord Strafford, was marked by an 

 incident of a most amusing character. Sir John Byng, who was as 

 fond of the turf as the rest of his sporting race, took his seat one 

 day at the head of the mess as colonel of the regiment. Conversation 

 turned upon the Doncaster St. Leger, which was close at hand ; and, 

 Sir John, being anxious to back a horse belonging to Lord Fitz- 

 william, opened his negotiations by offering to take 5,000 to 100 

 about another horse in the same stable. From his long acquaintance 

 with the officers of his own regiment he thought it extremely improb- 

 able that his offer would be accepted ; but his consternation may be 

 imagined, when, from the lower end of the table, a voice was heard 

 to issue from a young officer, who belonged to another regiment, and 

 whose presence as a guest had not been noticed by the colonel. 

 " Done, sir," exclaimed the young stranger, " I will lay you 50 

 hundreds to 1." The bet was booked with a wry face by Sir John 

 Byng ; and this was the commencement of a friendship which ex- 

 tended through three generations. 



The general had two trainers during his long career on the turf — 

 Coope, who trained through the times of Orlando and Tadmor ; and 

 Joseph Dawson in later years, down to the time of Peter. His 

 favourite jockeys were Arthur Pa vis and Nat Flatman. Personally, 

 General Peel was the kindest, gentlest, and most amiable of men. 

 He was a member of the House of Commons from 1826 till 1868 ; 

 and during that long period he never made an enemy. Indeed, it 

 was said of him, at the time he was Secretary for War, that he was too 

 amiable to make a good Cabinet Minister. He died at his beautiful 



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