TURF HISTORY. 17 



railway facilities for " getting a length/ 5 set in with 

 such intensity. None of these " great facts " bear 

 date in 1855; but taking Weathe.rby as our guide, 

 we may characterise the turf of that year as a vast 

 institute for sport, comprising 144 meetings in Great 

 Britain and Ireland, which were attended by 1,606 

 horses, of whom only 680 were winners, fed by 

 ^60,000 of added money, inclusive of the value of 

 cups and whips, and diffusing 198,000 in added 

 money and stakes, " be the same more or less" In 

 1856 the meetings fell to 138, at which 1630 horses 

 were stripped, to wit : 7 yearlings (!), 526 two-year- 

 olds, 455 three-year-olds, and 642 four-year-olds 

 and upwards; the whole being divided among 182sires. 

 Few modern racing men, until "The Squire of 

 Wantage" appeared above the horizon at last, have 

 been able to keep up a regular series of turf successes, 

 year after year, with the most carefully chosen blood, 

 to say nothing of cast-offs. Still, however unlucky a 

 man may be, if lie does not suddenly come to a 

 resolution to part with his stud, there is certain to 

 be some hidden yearling or two-year-old in it, who 

 would have retrieved his luck. Surplice would have 

 compensated Lord George for many a defeat ; King- 

 ston was not fated to carry the " purple and orange 

 cap " of Colonel Peel ; Gemma di Vergy might have 

 enabled " Mr. Hope " to hope on ; the Duke of Rich- 

 mond sold Wild Dayrell back to Mr Popham ; and the 

 Marquis of Exeter had all but parted with Stockwell 

 and his whole stud at the Northampton meeting of his 

 St. Leger year. Phryne and Barbelle together have 

 been the fruitful mothers of upwards of sixty thousand 

 pounds, in sales and stakes, to the Eglinton and Caws- 

 ton stud racing accounts ; but perhaps no stable ever 

 produced so many good runners in one season, as Sir 

 Joseph Hawley's in 1851. Three out of the four 

 bore part with Clincher, in the clearance which the 

 <f cherry jacket" made of race after race at Doncaster 



