76 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



" * He'll take a lot of beating, Mr Porter.' There is a 

 twinkle in the great trainer's eye, as who should say, 

 4 What do you think ? * 



" ' But it's a severe course for a two-year-old.' 



"'He can stay, can thisfettow! ' 



41 What more is needed ? I do not think we have a 

 three-year-old of this year that is in the same class with 

 Orme. Signorina can hardly be expected to have 

 regained her best form." 



It is, of course, well known now that Signorina had 

 in fact come back to her form, and she won that race 

 from Orme, but George Barrett rode him very indis- 

 creetly in the heavy ground and no one accepted that 

 form as correct. 



I pass now to the spring of 1892, when there occurred 

 the supposed poisoning of Orme. In fact the Duke of 

 Westminster informed the Press that Orme had been 

 "foully and deliberately poisoned" and had been 

 nearly dead. 



I myself was living at Edenbridge at the time, and 

 a message from The Sportsman on 2Qth April advised 

 me that the Duke of Westminster wished me to go to 

 Kingsclere and report what John Porter had to say 

 about the matter. 



Such an expedition was very inconvenient, for the 

 following day was my birthday and we had friends 

 coming to dinner, but by catching an excessively early 

 train I managed to get to Kingsclere as desired, and 

 Orme was just walking off the road to his box as I drove 

 up from Newbury. I wrote the following while going 

 back in the train, and my memory has never been a 

 bad one : 



