42 KINGSCLERE 



necessary in the present narrative to refer to Sir 

 Joseph Hawley's part in the fray. He — to some- 

 what anticipate events — declared to win with either 

 Rosicrucian or Green Sleeve, in preference to Blue 

 Gown, the reason being that he had backed the 

 three to win him large stakes. He hedged his Blue 

 Gown money simply because the horse was the 

 worst animal of the three, and, as a matter of fact, 

 he won comparatively little on the race. Blue 

 Gown — to go back to Newmarket — did not figure 

 in the Two Thousand, but he had run in the 

 Biennial Stakes at the Craven Meeting, and been 

 beaten a neck by The Earl. That, however, was 

 not his form. His plates had been put on so tight 

 he ran practically lame. At the First Spring he 

 picked up, very easily, two little races. Public 

 interest in the Derby increased to an enormous 

 extent after the Two Thousand, and was naturally 

 divided between the Danebury and Kingsclere 

 stables. The running at the Newmarket Craven, 

 which, through the defeat of Blue Gown by The 

 Earl, appeared to supply a line to the appraisers of 

 public form, together with the overthrow of Green 

 Sleeve in the Guineas, afforded commentators in 

 the sporting press abundant material for discussion, 

 and the arguments poured forth were ingenious, 

 exhaustive, and long-drawn-out. Porter, however, 

 doubts whether, in any instance, sufficient import- 

 ance was ascribed to the fact that Green Sleeve 

 was yet on the sick-list, or that Blue Gown was 

 lame when The Earl got a neck in front of him in 



