3o6 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



All kinds of sinister reports were circulated. She 

 had been poisoned ; she had been pulled ; she had 

 been trained to death. Nor were these all, for 

 amongst innumerable insinuations then in circula- 

 tion, too base for repetition here, it was pretty 

 freely said that every man in the stable, as well 

 as every friend of those in it, had made a muni- 

 ficent fortune by rascality at the expense of the 

 ever confiding and credulous British public, which 

 had been unblushingly and grossly victimised, 

 and as usual left to grumble and bear it. But 

 when we come to the facts of the case we find 

 that nothing was ever put forward to show that 

 the mare was either improperly treated or neglected 

 in any way, and I think that we have a right to 

 assume that there was no ground for the complaints, 

 but rather that credit should be ofiven to those in 

 charge of her for assiduity in everything that 

 skill or experience could suggest for her well- 

 being, and that the whole mystery may be summed 

 up in these few words : no robbery took place, 

 nor was one ever contemplated ; the mare had 

 simply lost her form — she was not so good as a 

 three as she was as a two-year-old." 



And certainly the man who trained the horse 

 — and no man is more competent — should know, 

 although it is never easy to knock a foregone 

 conclusion out of the minds of a racing public very 

 eager in general to believe the worst. 



" But what, after all," continues Mr. Day, " it 

 may be asked, was there so very different in Lady 

 Elizabeth's running to that of hundreds of others 

 of which nothing is heard afterwards ? " 



No doubt the very most that could be made 

 was made by the public gossip-mongers, out of 



