5 2 The Post and the Paddock. 



shire, they would have hit the Ring twice over for about 

 i3O,ooo/. One of them was just as careless about the 

 odds he laid, as the latest constellation was upon re- 

 ceiving days ; and if the last-named had trusted to 

 the infallible inspiration which used to come over him 

 as the flag dropped, he might have won any sum. Cob- 

 nut and Adine were two of his great triumphs, and 

 he won 5OOO/. 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 decidedly a gentleman's year, and 

 so many of them were within the mystic circle which 

 knew of the great Fyfield trial, that Teddington cost 

 the ring something like I5O,OOO/. Voltigeur's, on the 

 contrary, was a gentleman-gentlemen's" year, as 

 valets and coachmen won so immensely ; while Little 

 Wonder's and Merry Monarch's were the greatest tri- 

 umphs 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 Shrews- 

 bury about them, before the year was out ; and thus 

 given an inkling of the secret to the Chester handi- 

 capper, though certainly not to the world. The 

 match which has of late years produced the heaviest 

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

 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 superseded by " laying off;" and we had, in fact, 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 stated in the papers 

 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 /" Enoug-i was heard 

 about it in 1843, when old John Day took such liber- 

 ties with Gaper for the Derby, and Lord George made 

 him cry out " Peccavi" to some purpose when he got 



