SOME EARLY VICTORIAN OWNERS 499 



of his ground as Fisherman or Jitlius when they were defeated for that very 

 reason at Stockbridge. Buckthorn did not run so well again, so it was probably 

 with Iliona that Lord Palmerston's racing name was chiefly connected in the 

 public mind. For this smart daughter of Priam beat eight others for the 

 Southampton Stakes in 1842 when all were placed, and Retriever, who was 

 second, won the Goodwood Stakes the week after. This was lucky for a cheap 

 purchase at Tattersall's which had only been "one of Lord George's cast-offs;" 

 and she won Lord Palmerston's first Cesarewitch as well. 



Abstemious enough in eating and drinking, Lord Palmerston could do more 

 work than most men when he liked, and would stand at a high table and write 

 from ten o'clock at night till two in the morning, without running any risk 

 of losing the reputation as " Cupid " of which he was secretly a little proud. He 

 would gallop over from Broadlands to Danebury at such a pace that he had 

 to go round the yard once or twice before pulling up, in dark trousers and an 

 unbuttoned coat flying in the wind. "Such capital exercise! "he would exclaim, 

 galloping off again the moment he had seen the horses and thrown a word to 

 old John Day. But when the trainer got past the policeman and found Sir 

 William Codrington in the House of Commons, Lord Palmerston left the Irish 

 debate at once, and came out to shake hands with him, saying, in answer to 

 his congratulations on the Premiership, "Thanks, John; I have won my Derby." 

 In 1859 he quite thought "the real thing" was in his grasp at last; but 

 Mainstone was not placed. As Lord Derby said at Tattersall's just before the 

 race, on the day after the Derby Cabinet had been beaten in a division on the 

 Address, "Two wins in one week would be too much." The political rivals were 

 always good friends on the Turf; but Lord Palmerston may not have denied 

 himself a quiet chuckle when he saw that Cape Flyaway did no better at Epsom 

 than his own colt. The last thoroughbred he owned (Baldwin by Rataplan] he 

 sent over to the stud of Lord Naas in Ireland ; and this reminds me that when 

 the fellow-citizens of Palmer the poisoner came to ask him whether the name 

 of their town might be changed, in consequence of the evil notoriety which that 

 cold-blooded scoundrel had brought upon it, he suggested that if they desired to 

 be complimentary they might call it Palmerston. 



On May nth, 1856, Lord Chief Justice Campbell, Baron Alderson, and 

 Mr. Justice Cresswell tried William Palmer, aged 31, surgeon, of Rugeley, 

 Staffordshire, for the wilful murder of John Parsons Cook, at the Central Criminal 



