74 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



the object of his desire, with Goldfinder, after a most 

 severe race, in which twenty-nine animals ran, the 

 verdict being half a neck, and many imagined it was a 

 dead heat between him and Talfourd. Over this race 

 Palmer won 12,000 in bets and nearly 3000 in stake. 

 Other successes followed Goldfinder's that season, and 

 Palmer's stud of horses increased. His name, for some 

 unexplained cause, did not appear in the Calendar for 

 1854. That year he started Nettle for the Oaks at 

 Epsom, and she was at 2 to 1 when the flag fell. In 

 the race an accident happened to her which broke the 

 leg of her clever and honest jockey, Marlow. Many 

 surmises were entertained at the time as to Palmer 

 having either dosed the filly, or Marlow, as there was 

 a degree of mystery about the manner in which Nettle 

 fluctuated in the betting the night before that was 

 never cleared up. 



" Nettle was the animal Palmer bought with the 

 insurance money obtained by the murder of his 

 wife; and, as if to prove the truth of the old adage 

 that evil always comes of blood money, we may add 

 The Chicken, whom he had bought at the same time 

 and from the same funds, upset his calculations at 

 Warwick by not winning the Leamington Stakes, 

 running second only to Homily. It was surmised at 

 the time that to meet the settlement on that race he 

 was obliged to have recourse to the money lenders; 

 and consequently, when his securities were becoming 

 due, his fearful position tempted him to poison Cook, 

 for the sake of possessing himself of his means to stave 

 off for a time the evil hour. At Shrewsbury, which was 

 Palmer's last race meeting before his crimes found him 

 out, he won a Plate with Staffordshire Nan and the 

 Copeland Stakes with The Shadow, after having 



