690 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



inasmuch as both those blameless and valuable buildings were either erected or 

 enriched by the produce of the Lotteries that were finally suppressed in 1823. 

 This does not mean that betting is a good thing, or even that the betting connected 

 with racing is to be encouraged. The ideal Turfite would be the man who 

 still exists who races entirely on his own income. Those who deal with things 

 as they find them, and prefer practical proposals based on knowledge to the 

 impossible Utopias of uninformed faddists, will surely never shirk the duty, which 

 is their privilege, of cleansing the Turf of rascaldom as far as possible, of making 

 the transgressor's path difficult, of regulating betting by every means which may 

 protect the citizen from fraud in his free exercise of doing what he pleases with 

 his money. 



Few better animals with which to finish any record of the Turf could be 



conceived than Sceptre. From her very first public 

 appearance in the sale ring she was recognised as a 

 sensational filly, and she lived up to her reputation 

 from the time when Mr. R. S. Sievier took ,20,000 

 with him to Newmarket, looked over the Eaton 

 yearlings in company with his late trainer, Charles 

 Morton, and Mr. Peard, the Irish veterinary surgeon, 

 and then deposited the banknotes with Mr. Somerville 

 Tattersall at the Rutland Arms. He made other pur- 

 chases at that momentous sale, but he was waiting all 



Mr. Somerville Tattersall. i r i /-u i r> r^-> 



the time tor the nlly by Persimmon out or Ornament, 



who was led in last but one. He started at 5,000 guineas, bought her at 10,000, 

 and was prepared to go on. With Duke of Westminster, his other purchase, she was 

 tried as a young two-year-old, and they both (in receipt of a stone) beat the five- 

 year-old Leonid, as Mr. Sievier related in his interesting article in the " Badminton 

 Magazine." Robust and full of courage, all nerves and excitement, yet revelling 

 in her work, she went out and won the Wood cote Stakes against Czardas, Port Blair, 

 and seven others in the record time of 70? sec. for the six furlongs. She then 

 won the July Stakes at Newmarket, but was by no means herself when Game Chick 

 and Csardas beat her at Doncaster for the Champagne Stakes. Duke of Westminster 

 was then sold for ,22,000, and Sceptre promptly beat him in the Two Thousand 

 as soon as they met again. The horses were moved from Wantage to Shrewton 

 in the spring of 1902. Only a fortnight before the Lincoln Handicap some mistake 



