CONCLUSION. 303 



Low in his attacks on the turf writes on the slenderest infor- 

 mation, and that more often incorrect than not. But if one 

 more instance be required to show the emptiness of the 

 charge so gravely made, it may be found in the following 

 question, as simply put as it is profoundly answered. 



" Is the owner to back this colt," he asks in reference to 

 an animal for which it is supposed a large sum has been 

 given, " against a hundred horses : twenty or thirty of which 

 (and of these many, for anything he knows, better than his 

 own) are to start ? " 



" No. " The fact is, owners not only back their horses 

 against a hundred they have never seen before, but against 

 double that number or more, any one of which may be 

 better than their own. I may add in conclusion, that the 

 Professor is not singular in his aspersions of the doings of 

 owners, trainers, and jockeys. Other writers glibly attribute 

 motives which have no existence ; amongst them Mr. Lawrence, 

 from whom I have on more than one occasion quoted. But 

 an answer to one, is an answer to all ; and it is only necessary 

 that that answer should be a direct and complete refutation, 

 in language unmistakable, fearless, and frank. 



I HAVE now said all I have to say strictly bearing on the 

 subject which in the commencement of this work I proposed 

 to treat. I have resisted throughout the temptation to intro- 

 duce anecdote, even when relevant, lest in so doing the essen- 

 tial purport of the treatise, which is to be directly serviceable 

 to the individual rather than amusing to the multitude, should 

 be frustrated by the introduction of extraneous matter. The 

 nature of this temptation may be illustrated here by a few 

 examples, not uninstructive in themselves. 



It would have been easy to relate how on one occasion a 



