DANEBURY DAYS 



Elizabeth. The flying filly came back Avith a sadly chequered 

 fame — a bad fifth for the Middle Park Plate, and yet the 

 victress in one of the most wonderful of modern matches at 

 9 lb. with the three-year-old Julius. The Marquis had now 

 fallen back again to nearly the same " agony point " in finance 

 as when he saw the " all-rose ^ landed home for the Derby. 

 A weary winter followed, and he was so driven from pillar 

 to post by money troubles and Turf creditors that he lost 

 his interest in Turf matters and his head for calculations 

 with it. The irritable Lady Elizabeth, wasted to a shadow 

 in her training ; and how The Earl was scratched, and then 

 became the hero of the Parisians, and the Ascot visitors, and 

 how the few words that were dropped at York proved the 

 precursor of his Leger doom, are all dark passages of Turf 

 politics, and not easily forgotten. We saw the last of The 

 Earl when he was bought in as stout as a burgomaster for 

 3900 guineas at TattersalPs, and then he departed to Eindon 

 with a leg, upon whose chances of standing a preparation 

 each man seemed to differ with his fellow. The late Marquis 

 had been abroad all the summer in his yacht, but no northern 

 breezes could fan him back to health. He came to Doncaster, 

 from Norway, on crutches, and looking very ill and nervous, 

 and well he might, as, instead of having a St. Leger winner, 

 he had only the lean comfort of a veterinary certificate from 

 Mr. Mavor. At the First October he was on Newmarket 

 Heath in a basket carriage, which he only quitted to say a 

 word to the pretty Athena, " which once was mare of mine," 

 when she was led back a Avinner. As at Doncaster, he did 

 not go beyond " a pony " or two. " Mind I'm to have this 

 paid," said one ring man when he booked it to him, and after 

 that week they saw him no more. Nearly seven seasons had 

 passed by since he first came a lad of nineteen fresh from 

 Eton to Newmarket, and he left it a shattered man, only to 

 die. He spent some time at Folkestone, and visited town for 

 a few days before he set out for a winter sojourn with his 

 wife on the Nile. Some few friends dared to hope that he 

 might come back a new man and live quietly in his old 

 country home, and train the foals by The Duke. It was not 

 to be. " All the wheels Avere doAvn," and now the fourth and 

 the last Marquis of Hastings only lives in race-course story. 



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