58 KINGSCLERE 



In reference to the Cambridgeshire, in which 

 Blue Gown carried top weight — namely 9 st. — 

 Porter is of opinion that although the horse did not 

 win, he deserved more credit than was ascribed to 

 him for his performance. There was a long delay 

 at the post ; he was, under his crushing weight, in at 

 nearly all the attempts to get away ; and yet he 

 finished second to that good three-year-old See 

 Saw, to whom he was conceding 12 lb. 



Sir Joseph Hawley had purchased Lictor (4 

 years, by Lambton out of Parasol) of Sir John 

 Astley, and that useful horse became a member 

 of the stud in 1869. Useful indeed! Lictor was, 

 with Xi, the best and most trustworthy horse of 

 his rare stamp Porter ever had through his hands. 

 His 'answer' to 'the question' could, like Xi's, 

 be implicitly relied on. There was a Derby trial 

 some time in the spring which Porter vaguely 

 remembers, but of which he has preserved no 

 record. It was one of those false — or, at any rate, 

 perplexing — investigations into form which constitute 

 part of the experience of every seasoned master of 

 the art of training racehorses. ' Something went 

 wrong with the works,' and therefore the affair was 

 considered of no account and has since been for- 

 gotten. If, however, that vague ghost of a futile 

 trial has ceased to trouble the memory of the trainer 

 of Sir Joseph Hawley's uncommon stud, the real 

 test which followed, and of which a record has been 

 preserved, is yet to him, as it was on its occurrence 

 to the mystified owner, an unsolved problem. The 



