AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 147 



only say a word, as they are the accompaniments of 

 every St. Leger, but they have never been exceeded in 

 our time, and the whole tableau will render the Lord 

 Clifden Leger day the most memorable in the annals 

 of Doncaster." 



The career of Lord Clifden subsequent to his St. 

 Leger triumph was disappointing to Lord St. Vincent, 

 whose fate it was to " blaze the comet of a season, and 

 to leave behind him a reputation as evanescent as the 

 meteor's track, soon to be blotted out among the 

 countless stars of more steadfast lustre.' The colt 

 sustained a crushing defeat behind Scottish Chief in 

 the Ascot Cup of the next year, the stud becoming his 

 early destination thereafter, with Hawthornden speedily 

 bringing him into note as a sire. The " Sublime Edwin," 

 as Parr, his trainer, was dubbed, was not long in 

 His lordship's service after the St. Leger, the horses 

 going to Mr. Bevill's string. Nor did the owner of Lord 

 Clifden long remain on the Turf afterwards, and it was 

 said of him that he was a rare instance of " a bird 

 escaped from the fowler's net; a fly having broken the 

 bonds of the spider's web without being sucked even 

 unto death." 



The following sketch of the owner of Lord Clifden 

 was published in one of the magazines of the period 

 shortly after his lordship's death: 



" Lord St. Vincent had been, for the last two years, 

 nothing but a splendid wreck, and his sinking could 

 occasion no pain to his relatives and friends, as it must 

 have been a happy release from his pitiable condition. 

 A more used-up being than the infant which Sir Thomas 

 Lawrence had immortalised in his famous picture of 

 Lady Dover and child, grew into, could hardly be under- 



