THE TURF. 
Messrs, Shafto, Wentworth, Panton, Smith Barry, 
Ralph Button, Wildman, Meynell, Bullock, and others, 
who were running their thousand-guinea matches, and 
five hundred-guinea sweepstakes, most of them over 
the Beacon course, and with the finest horses perhaps 
the world ever saw ; and also, considering the difference 
in the value of money, for nearly as large stakes as those 
of present times, a few only excepted. 
Another of the noted turf characters of those days 
was the Honourable Richard Vernon, commonly called 
Dick Vernon, owner of the famous horse Woodpecker, 
with whom he won the Craven stakes no less than three 
times. He was an excellent judge of racing, backed 
his horses freely, and was the best bettor of his day, 
as may be inferred from the following page of Holcroft's 
Memoirs : 
" In addition to matches, plates, and other modes 
of adventure, that of a sweepstakes had come into 
vogue ; and the opportunity it gave to deep calculators 
to secure themselves from loss by hedging their bets, 
greatly multiplied the bettors, and gave uncommon 
animation to the sweepstakes' mode. In one of these 
Captain Vernon had entered a colt, and as the prize to 
be obtained was great, the whole stable was on the alert. 
It was prophesied that the race would be a severe one ; 
for, although the horses had none of them run before, 
they were all of the highest breed ; that is, their sires 
and dams were in the first lists of fame. As was 
foreseen, the contest was indeed a severe one, for it 
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