88 The Book of the Horse. 



taken the theatrical world by storm. Some years later, on the death of his first wife (a daughter 

 of the Duke of Hamilton) he robbed the stage of its most charming actress, Miss Farren, the 

 original Lady Teazle, by making her a countess. There is a tradition that to this lady, his step- 

 grandmother, young Stanley owed his first lessons in elocution. As before observed, the Derby 

 winner is the senior wrangler of his year ; but the race has been the subject of many strokes of 

 luck, has been carried off by horses that never afterwards distinguished themselves on turf or at 

 the stud. Some men have made this victory the pursuit of their lives, without success ; others, 

 like Lord Clifden in 1848 with Surplice, and Mr. Chaplin with Hermit in 1867, who started at the 

 odds of 66 to I against him, have triumphed in the earliest years of their turf ventures. Lord 

 George Bentinck devoted the best part of an energetic life, the largest breeding establishment 

 ever formed by one person, and several fortunes, to the pursuit, and sold the winner in 1846 

 with his stud to Lord Clifden, when he temporarily abandoned the turf to be still more unfortunate 

 in his political aspirations. 



In that political romance, the " Life of Lord George Bentinck," the author relates that when 

 Lord George heard that Surplice, whom he had bred and sold, had won the Derby he gave a 

 superb groan, whatever that may mean (Oy. the converse of a horse laugh .■') and in answer to 

 the attempted consolations of Mr. Disraeli, ejaculated, " You do not know what the Derby 

 means!" "Yes, I do: the Blue Riband of the T2irfy By that name the Derby has been 

 familiarly known ever since. That great master of phrases the Earl of Beaconsfield was never 

 happier than when he improvised this synonym, for it was of the blue riband that Lord 



Melbourne once said: "What [ like about the garter is that there's no d d pretence of 



merit about it." Lord Melbourne was, like his contemporaries, an habitual employer of oaths, 

 and the blue riband had then been usually given to royal personages and great noblemen, 

 generally to dukes, not because they had done anything, but because they were great magnates. 



The fifth Earl of Glasgow, with greater means than Lord George Bentinck and equal tenacity 

 (for racing was his one pursuit), was not more fortunate than the brilliant fourteenth Earl of 

 Derby; both ran second with horses that in ordinary years would have won. But there was 

 this important difference between them — racing was one of the Earl of Derby's amusements, 

 it was the Earl of Glasgow's daily occupation. 



Twice has the Derby been won by a horse born abroad : in 1S65 by Gladiateur, and in 

 1876 by Kisber. But for an accident, it is almost certain that Chamant, the easy winner 

 of the Two Thousand Guineas in 1877, would have won a second Derby for Count Lagrange. 



The Derby is memorable as the scene of a great fraud, the subject of a very interesting law- 

 suit. In the good old times when highwaymen still stopped and robbed gentlemen returning from 

 Newmarket Heath, a wretch named Dawson was hung for poisoning favourite racehorses. 

 Much more humane methods of making dangerous horses safe are now adopted by those who 

 bet against them — they buy them. But in 1844 there was a scheme for "ringing the changes" by 

 exchanging a three-year-old entered for the Derby for Running Rein, an English four-year-old, 

 and also for running a German-bred four-year-old. The race came off. The German horse, 

 Leander, fell, broke his leg, and was buried the same night. The changeling. Running Rein, 

 won, Colonel (afterwards General) Peel's Orlando being second. The secret of the swindle oozed 

 out; payment of the stakes was refused, and an action was brought to recover them. It was tried 

 before Judge Alderson. The evidence was of the usual contradictory character in horse cases; 

 but the judge, with his cliaracteristic acuteness, adjourned the trial for the production of the 

 most important witness — Running Rein himself When the second daj* of trial came he was 

 not to be found, so a verdict went fjr the dcfcntlants, and the stakes were awarded to that 



