60 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



used to come over him as the flag dropped, he might 

 have won any sum. Cobnut and Adine were two of 

 his great triumphs, and he won J5,000 about Daniel 

 O'Rourke, though he had not pencilled a bet till the 

 horses went up to start. The gentlemen of the Ring 

 hang very much together when they fancy a horse. 

 Flying Dutchman's and West Australian's were de- 

 cidedly a gentleman's year, and so many of them were 

 within the mystic circle which knew of the great Fy- 

 field trial, that Teddington cost the King something 

 Hke 1 50,000. Voltigeur's, on the contrary, was a 

 " gentleman-gentlemen's " year, as valets and coach- 

 men won so immensely; while Little Wonder's and 

 Merry Monarch's were the greatest triumphs the 

 Ring has known. Mr. Howard might almost have 

 broken it with Virago, for the triple events of the 

 Great Metropolitan, Suburban, and Chester Cup, 

 if he had not taken two ten-thousand books at 

 Shrewsbury about them, before the year was out ; 

 and thus given an inkling of the secret to the Chester 

 handicapper, though certainly not to the world. The 

 match which has of late years produced the heaviest 

 post-betting was that at Newmarket, in 1849, be- 

 tween Beehunter and Clincher, which appropriately 

 ended in a dead-heat. The term "hedging" has 

 been quite superseded by " laying off "; and we had, 

 in fact, quite forgotten it till we saw it seated in the 

 papers lately, by a clergyman, who did not answer a 

 question on doctrine as the Bishop of Exeter exactly 

 liked, that his lordship addressed him to this effect : 

 " You are hedging' Sir ; you are hedging " ! Enough 

 was heard about it in 1843, when old John Day took 

 such liberties with Gaper for the Derby, and Lord 

 George made him cry out " Perquavi " to some pur- 

 pose when he got him writhing in his vice. This is, in 

 fact, the most memorable instance of " hedging " on 

 record, and the ancient rupture between the parties 

 lent it no small flavour. " Honest John," from a 



