HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER. 363 



poison is not a capital offence by Act of Parliament." Lord Frederick, firm in his 

 opinion, was also betting Mr. Sloane and Colonel Osborne that it was. All three 

 wagers were soon settled on good authority, for after an acquittal on a point of law, 

 Dawson was tried for poisoning a horse belonging to Mr. Adams of Royston. 

 Dawson left a bottle which had contained arsenic under his bed, which his landlady 

 found, and on this and other evidence, including that of his accomplice Bishop, he 

 was found guilty and hanged on the top of Cambridge Castle on Saturday, August 

 8th, 1812. It might be thought that this was the high-water mark of such nefarious 

 practices. But unfortunately we find that Mr. Harvey Combe's Cobham was 

 suspected of having been poisoned in 1838; Lanercost was ineffectually "got at" ; 

 Ralph was fatally mishandled ; and suspicion attached with more or less justice to the 

 cases of Attila, Cot/ierstone, Old England, Surplice, Ncwminstcr, Blair Atliol, Hester, 

 and Orme, unless indeed " teeth " may be accepted as a complete explanation in the 

 last instance of a mystery that has never been quite cleared up, in spite of all the 

 trainer's and owner's efforts. The Derby of 1844 was especially infamous; for not 

 only was Leander under more than a suspicion of being over age, but Running Rein 

 was definitely disqualified from winning for that reason, and the race was given to 

 Colonel Peel's Orlando, who came in second, after an investigation in which Lord 

 George Bentinck took a leading part. The sixty-sixth anniversary of the Derby was 

 indeed hardly a propitious omen for the prosperous continuance of that historic 

 struggle. The death of Crockford on Oaks Day made matters very difficult for the 

 Ring, and there are ghastly stories still told of his corpse being placed upright at the 

 corner window in St. James's Street, where the Devonshire Club is now, with a 

 mercenary object that is sufficiently intelligible. Defaulters had been so numerous 

 that a code of new rules had to be drawn up for the observance of all subscribers to 

 Tattersall's. Charles James Apperley, who, as " Nimrod," had done excellent work 

 in criticising all and sundry in every form of sport, had died a year ago, soon after 

 Christopher Wilson, the " Father of the Turf." The Duke of Grafton, owner of 

 Prunella and Penelope, of Whalebone, of Whisker, was also on his death-bed. Cases like 

 those involved by the withdrawal of Canadian, or the refusal of Connop to pay his entry- 

 fees for the Grand Duke Michael Stakes, showed that much public uneasiness was 

 being felt. The shower of " Oui Tarn " actions in 1844 brought matters to a head, for 

 the scandal about Running Rein involved more than the large sums of money at 

 stake, and the thanks of the Jockey Club were most appropriately given to Lord 

 George Bentinck "for the energy, perseverance and skill which he displayed in 



