SPORTSMEN OF BENCH AND BAR 343 



best horse in which Baron Martin had an interest. He 

 was a favourite for the Derby, but was not placed. He, 

 however, won the Goodwood Cup of 1856, and that trophy 

 ornamented the Baron's sideboard and was one of his most 

 treasured possessions. 



The Turf of to-day is far less interesting than that with 

 which Baron Martin made acquaintance when William IV. 

 was still on the throne. Such characters as Sir Charles 

 Monk, Parson Harvey, James Hirst, Michael Brunton, 

 Mark Plews, Dick Stockdale, Bill Scott, and many more 

 have vanished, and the world of sport is the poorer by their 

 loss, for they infused into it that individual variety which 

 is the spice of life. 



From 1832 to 1850, when he was appointed a Baron of the 

 Exchequer, Mr Martin had many opportunities of attend- 

 ing races, though, like many other lovers of the sport, he 

 was fonder of watching horses at exercise and of seeing 

 them stripped in the stable than of frequenting race- 

 meetings. 



On Sundays during the assize week in York he had a 

 post-chaise ready at daybreak, in which, often accompanied 

 by his old friend Mr James Stuart Wortley, he drove off 

 to Malton, to visit John Scott's stables at Whitewall. His 

 inquiries about every detail of racing descended to the 

 minutest particulars, and few facts once committed to 

 memory ever escaped him. The time when all this racing 

 knowledge was to be turned to account by Mr Martin (who 

 took silk in 1843) was rapidly approaching. 



The first case which brought him into prominence was 

 the famous Bloomsbury Protest in 1839. Mr Ridsdale's 

 slashing colt had won the Ascot Derby Stakes in the 

 previous season, but Lord Lichfield had protested against 

 the payment of the stakes on the ground that the horse 

 had been misdescribed. Cresswell (afterwards Sir Cress- 

 well Cresswell, the first President of the Divorce Court) and 

 Martin were counsel for Mr Ridsdale, the plaintiff, but the 

 conduct of the case was left entirely in Martin's hands, and 

 he secured a brilliantly won verdict for his client. 



Running Rein came in first for the Derby of 1844, but 

 was objected to on the ground that he was really a four-year- 



