266 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



One year Crockford was the owner of a Derby 

 favourite in Ratan, a horse which had made its 

 mark as a two-year-old. Although the horse was 

 very carefully watched, seeing that its owner had 

 backed it to win an enormous sum of money, 

 it was " got at," and it is supposed poisoned by 

 means of arsenic introduced into its drinking 

 trough. 



Crockford started a house at Newmarket, 

 which became an agreeable resort to those visitors 

 to whom he offered hospitality, and he was no 

 niggard in dispensing the good things of life at 

 his table. Nor did he invite persons to his house 

 so that, when heated with liquor, he might rob 

 them at cards or dice. Crockford was then a 

 betting man and bookmaker, laying or backing 

 as he thought best for his own interest ; and his 

 visitors, to use a slang phrase, were " as fly as 

 he was." They were not all spiders who walked 

 into his Newmarket parlour, his visitors were 

 known to have, on many occasions, their pockets 

 well stuffed with crisp Bank of England notes. 

 Another feature of Crockford's behaviour helped 

 him to connection and wealth ; when he lost he 

 never required to be asked for money, he was a 

 prompt payer ; nor did he, when he was reputed 

 to be rolling in wealth, ever forget himself, he 

 was invariably polite and courteous. The devil, 

 indeed, never was so black as he has been painted, 

 and Crockford, gambler though he was, was 

 not the fiend that some writers described him as 

 being. As well as being a betting man and the 

 keeper of a hell, Crockford was also a keen 

 operator on the Stock Exchange ; but on that 

 stage of speculation he generally came to grief, 



