GEORGE IV. 109 



betting veered round to 2 to 1 on Surprise, the for- 

 mer verdict was reversed ! Uppark in Sussex was a 

 favourite race-meeting in that day, and in addition 

 to the Duke of Dorset and his brother, the names of 

 Featherstone, Lade, Lake, Hanger, Delme Red- 

 cliffe, and Tarlton were never absent from its silken 

 fray. A 60 Plate with Anvil over the D. I. in the 

 autumn of his maiden season was the first race 

 which the Prince ever won at Newmarket, and his 

 stud, which then only consisted of four or five, rose 

 in 1790 to forty-one ! Chifney senior had only 

 ridden for him about two seasons before the Escape 

 affair, which took place in 1791. The first sale of his 

 stud at TattersalPs was delayed till Dec. 2nd of the 

 following year, and then the twenty-eight lots pro- 

 duced five thousand guineas. Those who wonder 

 now why the Prince nobly chose rather to leave the 

 turf altogether than sacrifice his jockey, when Sir 

 Charles Bunbury intimated to him that no members 

 of the Jockey Club would make matches, or run 

 horses in any stake where Chifney rode, are not 

 aware of what occurred with Escape in the Ascot 

 Meeting of that year. It would have been well if 

 he had broken his fetlock in his yearling days, when 

 he embedded it with a kick in the wood work of his 

 loose box, and caused his astonished owner (Mr. 

 Franco) to exclaim, when he heard the story of his 

 extrication from the groom " Oh, what an escape !" 

 and to christen him on the spot. Soon after going 

 into training he became a complete " rabbit" in his 

 running " in-and-out," and so delicate withal, that 

 in spite of all Neale's care, he seldom kept his con- 

 dition for many days together. To give a man such 

 a treacherous blute to steer, and then to condemn 

 him because he could not always win upon him, 

 would, as the Prince felt, have been the height of 

 injustice. In the Ascot instance, to which we are 

 alluding, he had entered four horses in the Oatlands; 



