62 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



sum. The Londoners also backed Yoltigeur to such 

 an extent with him,, that nearly 40,000 was paid 

 over his list-counter alone about "the lusty Rich- 

 mond stallion." He was also hit heavily "in Ted- 

 dington's year, and the 15,000 cheque which he 

 sent Mr. Greville the morning after the race, stamped 

 him at once as a very mine of Peru. Mrs. Taft and 

 Truth were great pulls for him that autumn, and the 

 public set the joint gain at 45,000. After his 

 winter Derby deposits came in, he was supposed to 

 have entered on his 1852 campaign with 130,000 

 at the Westminster Bank (whose heads would, as the 

 story ran, rise to accommodate him at any hour of 

 the night !) but on this as well as every other calcu- 

 lation, " be the same more or less " must be the 

 conveyancing motto ever present to the reader's 

 mind. He resembled, in fact, Captain O'Kelly 

 in his zenith, who, when he was asked, after taking 

 a heavy bet, where his estates lay, responded that, 

 " By the powers, I hev the map o } them about me," 

 and produced a perfect roll of Bank Notes ; or the 

 old miser near Doiieaster, who went to a great land 

 sale in his filthy rags, and a hay-band round his 

 waist, and astounded the auctioneer, who wondered 

 where the deposit was to come from, by holding up 

 alOO,000 Bank Note (one of thefew evermade), and 

 saying " Here's the cock ; Pve got the old hen at home!" 

 Henceforward, the tide of ill-luck always flowed 

 steadily against him at Epsom. Daniel O'Rourke 

 is said to have cost him 30,000, as he had been 

 duly "got " at 100 to 1. Catherine Hayes cost him 

 about the same, and West Australian 48,000, of 

 which 30,000 went in a cheque to Mr. Bowes. At 

 Chester, in 1852, he was fairly beset by the infatu- 

 ated backers of Nancy ; and there he stood, while 

 they almost fought who should first thrust their 5 

 notes into his hands, and see themselves pencilled 

 down at 55 to 0. Although, perhaps, not abstract- 



