FOURTH PERIOD : VICTORIA 187 



Nothing has come of the offer made of a 

 thousand pounds for the ' nobbier' of Orme ; and, 

 if Orme's friends have found cause to reconsider 

 their expressed opinion that there was ' nobbHng ' 

 in the case, the pubHc — and especially the Kings- 

 clere stable, on which a cloud, however slight, of 

 suspicion could scarcely fail to rest — would no 

 doubt be glad to hear of the reconsideration. 



What changes have been produced in the aspect 

 of the turf during her Majesty's reign, may be 

 inferred from the following considerations. 



At her Majesty's accession not a single foreigner 

 had ever won a race, at any rate a race of any 

 account, upon any English race-course, with a 

 horse bred in any foreign country. Now there 

 is scarcely an English race of any importance 

 which has not been won, once at least, and perhaps 

 twice or thrice, by some horse bred in a foreign 

 country. When Louis Philippe's son, the Due 

 d'Orleans, won the Goodwood Cup with Beggar- 

 man in 1840, the winner was an English horse. 

 Nor, though the French naturally, from their 

 greater contiguity to our shores, to say nothing 

 of other reasons, swooped down upon us in the 

 greatest numbers, and have eventually run us 



