DANEBURY DAYS 



preliminary stage, for, hasty and impetuous as 

 he unquestionably was, the Admiral was an 

 eminently just man, and possessed a remarkable 

 fund of sound common-sense. He speedily recog- 

 nised that what he had written in haste could 

 not be maintained for a moment in a court of law, 

 and an apology and complete withdrawal of the 

 letter closed the unfortunate incident. 



The terrible disappointment with regard to 

 Lady Elizabeth was almost atoned for by the 

 marvellous improvement made by The Earl at 

 from two to three years of age, or I should rather 

 say that it might have been but for untoward 

 circumstances to which I shall presently allude. 

 The Earl wound up his first season in unpromis- 

 ing fashion with four consecutive defeats, his 

 last race being with Suffolk over the Abingdon 

 Mile, when Baron Rothschild's shifty colt beat 

 him a neck. The winter, however, did wonders 

 for him, and he won a very high trial over a mile, 

 prior to the Newmarket Biennial, in a style that 

 fairly astonished the stable. John Davis asked 

 him the question, and, as a more reliable examiner 

 could not be wished for, he was backed for that 

 event in something like the old Danebury style, 

 and started at 6 to 4 in a field of eleven. The 

 neck by which he beat Blue Gown could probably 

 have been stretched into a length or so had Ford- 

 ham cared to do so, and the pair came right away 

 from their field, Suffolk being a bad third. I am 

 not inclined to dwell upon the Derby of that 

 year as far as The Earl was concerned. There is 

 not the least doubt that he could have won the 

 race, and won it easily, for he was an infinitely 

 better horse at a mile and a half than at a mile ; 

 indeed, Enoch maintains that no horse ever trained 

 at Danebury was his equal at the former dis- 



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