i74 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



modern Jockey Club had been in existence when 

 Hume the elder was in his heyday, that gentle- 

 man would, in spite of his alleged probity, integrity, 

 and so forth, have been warned off the Turf at 

 short notice. 



For we read that " so great a master in the art 

 of riding was he that he would often be beat 

 to-day and within eight days lay a double wager 

 on the same horses and come off conqueror " 

 (sic). No doubt this paragon of honour has 

 many emulators on the Turf to-day, but the 

 relatives and friends of the latter at least have 

 not the effrontery to tell us that such men are 

 "strictly just, utterly detesting all manner of 

 fraud," the statement made again and again 

 about the elder Hume by his kinsfolk. 



Elsewhere we learn that sometimes he ran two 

 horses in one race and that upon occasions he 

 was able to hoodwink the spectators assembled 

 into believing that a horse had tried hard to win 

 when in reality it had barely extended itself. 



Hume himself would talk openly to his friends 

 about the races he meant to win, and apparently 

 he seldom attempted to conceal the fact that some 

 of his horses were meant to lose. 



Possibly this very " ingenuousness " may have 

 led some of his friends, and a proportion of what 

 we should to-day call the general public, to 

 believe that he acted honourably and always in 

 good faith. 



