PRIAM AND ZINGANEE. 161 



and did some good work each morning in the Park. 

 Bebington was the third stage, and Retford the 

 fourth. Mr. Clarke was not at home when Will 

 gave a passing call at his cheerful hostelrie at Barnby 

 Moor; but his good spouse took a look at Priam, 

 and sent out her best ale to the lads to drink the 

 Derby winner's health. When they reached the In- 

 take farm stables, Will Chifney was disposed to con- 

 sider Birmingham, by Filho da Puta a great brown 

 seventeen-hand horse, with the Haphazard and Or- 

 vile strains in him as his most dangerous opponent ; 

 till Sam Day, who had ridden Cetus against him at 

 Warwick, assured him that Priam had nothing to 

 fear, and that in his opinion Birmingham would not 

 like the distance. The horse did strong work (though 

 by no means so severe as the Northern trainers chose 

 to report) on the Town Moor up to the Sunday be- 

 fore the race, which was then always run on a Tues- 

 day ; and, mindful of Malek's celebrated bolt to his 

 corn-bin, Will would never lead him on or off it by 

 the Intake-farm Gate, but skirted it through gaps 

 purposely made in the hedges of the Corporation 

 Meadows, and so through the gate near the Rubbing 

 House. The weather for some days before the St. 

 Leger had been so bad, that, as old Will Carter was 

 wont to say, the course was " deluded with wet," and 

 the twenty-eight starters were nearly up to their 

 fetlocks between the T.Y.C. post and the Red House, 

 at which latter point the water literally stood in pools. 

 Sam did not at all relish the immense stride of Bir- 

 mingham, as he took his canter alongside of him, amid 

 thunder, rain, and lightning. The brown was so 

 powerful that Connolly could hardly hold him ; and 

 it was all he could do to pull him from the edge of 

 the ditch, into which the pair nearly rolled head- 

 long. Before they reached the Intake turn, the heavy 

 ground had brought Priam to grief ; but he struggled 

 gamely home, and was only beaten by half a length. 



