MODERN BETTING ILLUSTRATED^ ETC. 221 



luck — he was then a day labourer — was in realising 

 a bet of ^10 to lOi". on Princess for the Two-year- 

 old Stakes at Doncaster, in 1843. A sum of 

 ^10, forty years ago was thought by a labouring 

 man to be "money," and such was the opinion 

 of " old Thatchem." Not a penny of the £\o 

 was parted with till next year, when a sovereign 

 invested on Kedge for the Champagne Stakes 

 doubled the sum, whilst £2 invested on Bee's 

 Wing for the Gold Cup added ^16 to the hoard. 

 In three years the old man was worth a cool 

 hundred, which he invested in the purchase of a 

 house. His ambition being stirred, he continued 

 his careful and successful career, and soon became 

 an adept at his business; not that he was always 

 successful ; oh, no, many a time he felt the 

 frost of speculation ; on such occasions, like a 

 prudent general, he wisely desisted from business 

 for a brief period that his luck might have room, 

 as he was wont to say, to turn itself round. 



By way of contrast to this prudent Yorkshire- 

 man, take the case of a young fellow who a good 

 many years ago flashed upon the turf like a 

 meteor. Winning ^300 when Caractacus won 

 the Derby, he followed up his success at Epsom 

 by bagging a large amount at Ascot, and the like 

 good fortune attending his efforts at Good- 

 wood, at the end of the year he left off with an 

 addition to his bank account of ^2,700. Extra- 

 ordinary to relate, he was equally successful in 

 the following year, but a change of fortune over- 

 took him at last, and from being a swell of the 

 first water, constantly in luck, always feasting 

 on fat things, he gradually fell and fell till, in a 

 few years, he was glad to earn a shilling or two 



