258 SALE OF LORD GEORGE'S STUD. 



advised Mr Mostyn to run them both, and to 

 declare to win with Surplice, whose idleness, I 

 thought, would make him appear to win with some 

 difficulty. Loadstone, on the other hand, was 

 such a free runner that spectators might easily 

 imagine that he could have beaten Surplice but 

 for the declaration to win with the latter. I 

 little anticipated, however, that the rider of Load- 

 stone would be deceived as to the comparative 

 merits of the two. Flatman, who rode Surplice, 

 had orders to make running, and to win after 

 making the best semblance that he could of a race. 

 Loadstone was ridden by Frank Butler, whom I 

 told to wait upon Mr Dixon's Hope (a Danebury 

 filly upon whom her party were rather sweet), and 

 to beat her if he could in the event of her having 

 the foot of Surplice. As the race came off, Surplice 

 made the pace so good that Hope was soon beaten, 

 and the former won in a canter by three lengths. 

 Immediately after the race I asked Frank Butler 

 how Loadstone had carried him. " Very well 

 indeed," he replied, with a broad grin ; "I could 

 have won far enough had I been wanted ! " 



When he left me Frank Butler joined his first 

 master and great friend, Colonel Anson, and told 

 him that Loadstone would have won easily "had 

 his head been loose." This intimation, coinciding 

 with what the public observed as to the running of 

 the lazy horse and that of his free stable com- 

 panion, soon had the effect of making Surplice 



