CHAPTER XXII. 

 " 'SCEPTRE' WINS ! " 



" Now to conclude and end my song, it is the sportsman's list, 

 And when you come your gold to sport don't let Beeswing be missed. 

 May fortune smile upon her now and on her steps attend, 

 So now, my jolly sportsman, my song is at an end." 



T STARTED this book with the consideration that 1900 was a good year from 

 which to take a glance back at ancient Turf history with a view of determining 

 in some measure the manner of our progress towards the future. No one could 

 have imagined, at the time my first volume was planned, that so great a gap would 

 have been created between the year 1904 and all its predecessors. The recent 

 deaths of so many staunch supporters of the English Turf, among whom Lord 

 Alington was in his day one of the most prominent, have indeed made a history 

 of racing up to this time appropriate, in a far sadder sense than I had ever 

 contemplated. Even in 1903 alone England lost in Lord Salisbury a Prime 

 Minister whose views on sport were as tolerant, as broad minded, and as honourable 

 as they were in every other department of his distinguished public career ; and we 

 also had to mourn the loss of John Dawson, the trainer of Galopin and Petrarch ; 

 of Harrison, the jockey of Victor Wild ; of Sir John Blundell Maple, who owned 

 one of the largest thoroughbred studs in existence; of Mr. H. Nugent, one of 

 our foremost gentleman-riders ; of the sixth Duke of Richmond and Gordon, 

 senior member of the Jockey Club ; of Prince Soltykoff, who came to England 

 for a few months' visit, and raced there for five and forty years ; of Lord 

 Colville of Culross, member of the Jockey Club and the Royal Yacht Squadron ; 

 of Mr. Forrest Tod, owner of Csardas ; of W. J. Innes, whose charity and 

 uprightness were as well known on the Turf as in the smaller world of Elect 

 Street ; ot the Hon. Cecil Howard, the capable manager of several racing 

 studs ; and of William Wilson (brother of the famous E. P. Wilson), who 



