SOME EARL\ VICTORIAN OWNERS. 



473 



he cast away his whole stud at a moment when it promised the most brilliant 

 results, in order to throw himself wholly into another pursuit which not only 

 removed all possibility of gain upon the Turf, but promised no pecuniary rewards 

 in compensation. "I have not the least doubt," concludes Greville, "that, for his 

 own reputation and celebrity, he died at a most opportune period." 



In spite of Greville's admitted distaste for the manners and methods of the 

 Turf, he was not above owning the winner of the St. Leger ; and, curiously enough, 

 Mangos race was the scene of an accident, and a description of that accident 

 which many must have remembered, even to its turns of phrase, when they heard 

 Lord George Bentinck's little oration on the misfortunes of A/arvi. Two years 

 before, John Bowes, of Streatlam, had celebrated his majority by winning the 

 Derby with Milndig, after a scene with his trustees about the horse which led 

 John Scott to exclaim, " What an owdacious young 'un ! " and which gave unfailing 

 promise of his calmly successful career later on. In 1837 he had a colt named 

 Epirus, whose first appearance was in the St. Leger at the starting-price of 2 to i. 

 From the Jockey Club 

 Stand at Doncaster he 

 was watching the pro- 

 gress of the race, when, 



as the horses passed from ^B^ /. 



the gravel road over the 

 hill, every one near him 

 became wildly excited 

 over an accident that 

 had evidently occurred. 

 They appealed to him 

 to know what had hap- 

 pened. Without a trace 

 of emotion, and without 

 removing his eye from 

 the telescope, he announced that "Epirus has fallen into the ditch. Bill Scott is 

 lying prostrate and unable to move. I think he is killed. Another horse is down 

 or has been pulled up. I think it is Alderman Copeland's Prime Warden." 



Scott was not killed, though very near it. Ridden rather too close to a ditch 

 near the side of the course, his horse had fallen into it, through the bank giving 

 VOL. in. c 



Mr. John Bowes " Cotherstone" (1840) 

 by " Touchstone^ 



