BEND OR AND TADCASTER 265 



Bend Or and Tadcaster, 'twas said, 



The names at first were fixed ; 

 But. like the twins of which we've read, 



The horses got quite mixed. 



And so by boys too prone to err 



Or else by Arnold's whim, 

 Bend Or was changed with Tadcaster, 



And Tadcaster with him. 



Such fruit the strange confusion bore, 



When races soon were run, 

 That, though the public backed Bend Or, 



'Twas Tadcaster that won. 



But most our wonderment awakes 



At this part of the fable 

 That Bend Or won the Derby Stakes 



While standing in his stable ! 



And, though that fiction seems the worst, 



By this it may be matched 

 'Twas Tadcaster that came in first 



Although he had been scratched ! 



The stewards decided that objection in favour of Bend 

 Or, but Mr James Lowther in later years told me that from 

 what had then come to his knowledge he believed their 

 decision was wrong. 



The truth appears to be that a mistake was really made 

 when the yearlings were sent to the late Robert Sherwood 

 to break, and, when they went to Robert Peck at Russley, 

 the mistake was not rectified until Colonel Barlow, the 

 Duke of Westminster's master of horse, arrived at Russley 

 to see them galloped, and he, knowing the colts from their 

 foalhood, discovered the error and had them put in their 

 right places. This I know from " Geordie " Spencer, the 

 man who assisted Sherwood in the breaking of them, and 

 subsequently " did " them at Russley. He used to write 

 their names on the sand in front of the doors of their 

 boxes, and after Colonel Barlow's visit, Robert Peck came 



