MATHEW DAWSON AT HEATH HOUSE 241 



The allusion was to the habit of preaching in Noncon- 

 formist pulpits, which Samuel Danks cultivated with much 

 success, though far be it from me to suggest here that he 

 was influenced by any but the most conscientious motives. 



Stuart Wortley was on the North Eastern Circuit with 

 me, so that we were still mixed up together, though it 

 was not to be for very long. 



It was in the spring of 1877 that I first made the personal 

 acquaintance of Mathew Dawson and Lord Falmouth. 

 It wab a year big with fate for the Cobham stud, for 

 there were many Blair Athol three-year-olds of great 

 pretensions, Rob Roy in particular, whose purchase at 

 Cobham has been already referred to. Mr Bell, the 

 Cobham manager, and I went to Newmarket a week or 

 so before the racing season opened, and we stayed at the 

 Rutland Arms. After dining there we spent the evening 

 with Mathew Dawson at Heath House, and a very delight- 

 ful evening it was. Mathew Dawson was a really great 

 man, who would have risen to the top of the tree in any 

 walk of life, and to hear him talk on the subject of horses 

 and racing was in its way a liberal education. It was a 

 convivial evening too, for, like every reasonable Scotsman, 

 he appreciated good whisky. Moreover, as regards Blair 

 Athol, he told us how the great horse's son, Silvio, had been 

 tried that very morning. They had set him a big task 

 i.e. to beat the four-year-old Skylark over a mile at a 

 difference of only 6 Ib. in favour of Silvio, who had won 

 so easily that he was certainly the equal of the old one 

 at even weights. 



This was manifestly a great trial, for the weight for age 

 difference between a three-year-old and a four-year-old 

 in March is 20 Ib., and Skylark had been one of the best 

 of the preceding season, nor had he failed to improve, for 

 he won the Gold Vase at Ascot later on in 1877. Before 

 the evening had finished we had begun to think that the 

 Derby was as good as over, and when we left for the 

 Rutland Arms both my companion and I were so regard- 

 less of anything else except the coming triumphs of Blair 



