SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



at his old-fashioned house at Rugeley, occasion for 

 eating and drinking did not arise. There was, to 

 my mind, always an air of undesirable mystery 

 about his proceedings, and, a dead gambler at heart, 

 he cared not so much about the price of a horse he 

 fancied as the substantial character of the bet. It 

 was, my intuition taught me, only desirable to deal 

 with Palmer when he was known to be in funds, 

 and long before he was arrested for the murder that 

 justified his hanging he bore a most sinister reputa- 

 tion. Thus after Charlie Marlow was brought in 

 with a broken leg through the fall of Palmer's 

 Sweetmeat filly, Nettle, in the Oaks, his comment, 

 made in my hearing, on the misfortune, was "It 

 serves me right. What business had I to ride a 



d d poisoner's horse ? " This was in the month 



of May 1855, and as Nettle was deemed of such 

 character as to be entitled to favouritism for the 

 Ladies' Race the position of Palmer, to the ordinary 

 eye, must have seemed one of passing respectability. 

 The defeat, through accident, of Nettle — she bolted, 

 and fell over the chains near the New Mile post — - 

 was a great financial blow to Palmer, who had 

 plunged upon the filly, heroine in the previous 

 season, when the property of Mr. T. Wilkinson, of 

 the Gimcrack Stakes. 



Mr. Fred Swindell had a very "narrow squeak" 



74 



