130 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



than that of the racing of two-year-olds. From the 

 letter which he addressed to Mr. Chaplin and Sir Joseph 

 Hawley, then reigning magnates along with his lordship, 

 not to mention others of note, the following is an 

 excerpt: 



" I take it," he wrote, " that any deterioration of the 

 Turf in public estimation, of which there is no doubt, 

 is mainly owing to the fact that the majority of horses 

 are now in the possession of men who run for profit and 

 not for sport, who care nothing for the animal horse, 

 who can't afford to wait for the return of their money, 

 but who, in the language of the Manchester School, 

 prefer the nimble ninepence to the silver shilling, and 

 in whose hands a wretched animal, especially if he is 

 not going so wretched as he is thought, is quite as 

 valuable as one of the high class horses, if not more so." 



Needless to add that the number of needy and 

 unscrupulous speculating owners on the Turf at the 

 present day is as large, if not larger, than in the days 

 when their villainy caused the retirement from the 

 Jockey Club of so high-minded a nobleman as " the 

 Rupert of debate." Lord Derby, who was at the head 

 of two administrations, died, mourned as a great noble- 

 man and patron of the Turf on 23rd October, 1869. The 

 above is one of his last public utterances on an evil which 

 largely exists in the present. He succeeded in winning 

 neither a Derby nor a St. Leger, though his name is 

 found in the bead roll of the Two Thousand and the 

 Oaks. 



As one of the conspicuous figures associated with 

 the " Times " of our hero, Lord Glasgow claims a part in 

 the passing show. Born in 1792, he was originally in 

 the Navy. For a period he was known to the racing 

 world as Lord Kelburne, assuming the fuller title of 



