324 Saddle and Sirloin. 



heat on Brownlock, George Edwards running him 

 home on Crow-Catcher so called from his having 

 decapitated a crow, which alighted near him in social 

 confidence when he was in his paddock as a two-year- 

 old. In the second heat Scott led away, and Harry 

 Edwards on Purity, not fearing anything else, "flapped 

 his wings a bit," as he expressed it, as if setting to, and 

 ran in third. Thales won that heat, and Lord Kel- 

 burne began to be very anxious, and couldn't under- 

 stand it at all. He came down from the grand stand 

 for an explanation, and Croft took snuff in his quiet 

 way, when he was asked what he was going to do, 

 and replied, " 1 am going to saddle the mare, my lord: 

 theftm of the fair's only just beginning'' It was time 

 to begin with the third heat, in which Purity beat 

 Brownlock by a head, after a slashing finish. Still 

 the mare had not worn him down to her slow per- 

 petual motion level, and hence it was necessary to get 

 something to make a pace. Accordingly, as the chance 

 of Thales was clearly nil, his owner accepted 2$l. to 

 force the running. Tommy Lye worked away, and 

 as Purity's jockey kept tickling him up with his whip, 

 when he could reach him, Tommy's horse kept giving 

 a series of marvellous shoots, which were somewhat 

 puzzling at first to the little man. Scott tried to get 

 up between them, but failed ; and when he did come 

 in earnest, he made a dead heat with Purity. Half 

 the people had gone home, and Lord Kelburne, who 

 had backed his mare to win him 5OO/., said that 

 " there will be no dinner to-day" Officials were not so 

 particular then; but still it is remarkable that Bill 

 Scott did not remember that the fact of two horses, 

 which had each won a heat, running a dead heat, dis- 

 qualified even Thales, though he had won a heat, from 

 starting again. This oversight decided the fortune 

 of the day. Away went Tommy, and the tickling, 

 and the " shooting" began again; and although Purity 

 finished quite black in the flanks with sweat, and 



