FOURTH PERIOD : VICTORIA 225 



her bay mare Gazelle at Croxton Park ; and we 

 from time to time have seen the sforgfeous colours 

 of a Mrs. Snewing (reminding us of him who 

 won the Derby with Caractacus), and the less 

 imposing livery of Mrs. Osbaldeston (recalling 

 memories of the hard-riding ' Squire '), and a few 

 other meteoric appearances of horse-owning and 

 horse-running persons of the more admirable and 

 ornamental sex ; still the present reign, on the 

 whole, has been deficient in examples of the ' lady 

 turfite,' however prolific it may have been, for a 

 certain period, in the matter of ' pretty horse- 

 breakers.' 



Besides, a Mrs, Massey, in 1839 and in sub- 

 sequent years, ran vigorously all over the country 

 — at Worcester, Shrewsbury, Chester, Warwick, 

 etc. — with Tubalcain and Naamah, and perhaps 

 with other and better animals. But one swallow 

 does not make a summer, nor does one Mrs. 

 Massey suffice to restore entirely an evanescent 

 feature of the 'good old times.' 



Her Majesty's reign has witnessed the complete 

 ascendancy and, in one or two respects, the self- 

 stultification of the Jockey Club, the prodigious 

 extension of the betting nuisance, the augmenta- 



15 



