494 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



to stop some animals, it was equally impossible for others to get home first 

 under a featherweight. " I'll eat my hat if that horse wins ! " was one of his 

 favourite remarks, and his friend George Payne used to say that if only he had 

 been properly conscientious, the Admiral would have made a fortune for his hatter 

 by ruining his own digestion. Sir Joseph Hawley, soon after he had netted 

 about ,80,000 in bets on Beadsman, made a vigorous sermon against the evils of 

 heavy wagering. This was not the Admiral's way. Nothing enraged the old 

 gentleman so much as the reports of Mr. Merry's colossal win over Thormanby, 

 or the huge sums that passed to Mr. Naylor or Mr. Chaplin about Macaroni 

 or Hermit. He even wanted to expel a man from the Jockey Club who won 



more than .50,000 on 

 a single race. But when 

 they tried to bring a 

 " Pari Mutuel " machine 

 to the Newmarket 

 Craven meeting, he 

 ordered it off the heath. 

 Often as he went to 

 extremes himself in his 

 letters to the Times, he 

 knew very well how to 

 avoid them when it came 

 to legislating for the 

 Turf he loved so well. 

 As was justly said at the 



presentation made to him in Willis's rooms on Waterloo Day, 1866, " He has 

 always done his best to repress everything of a fraudulent and dishonourable 

 nature. He has laboured to reconcile conflicting interests, ... he has enjoyed the 

 respect and affection of every class of the racing community. ... If Admiral Rous 

 should retire, he will leave a void impossible to fill." Just eleven years afterwards 

 the old Dictator died, and the void is not filled yet. But the traditions of 

 honourable service he left behind him are still the foundations of the prosperity of 

 racing. It was Lord Granville who spoke the words I have just quoted that 

 Minister for Foreign Affairs who took part in the debate on Lord Redesdale's Bill 

 by saying that " De minimis non curat lex," which may be not inaptly translated, 



" Catherine Hayes " fy " Latter cost" (1850). 



