BILL CHIFNEY. 49 



the Rooms, and exclaimed on approaching him, 

 " I told you I would one day have my revenge 

 for your ill-treatment of my father ; and now the 

 time has come." With that he struck the Colonel 

 a violent blow in the face with his fist, knocking 

 him down, and striking him as he lay in the road. 

 But for the intervention of the bystanders it was 

 thought that he would have killed the Colonel, 

 who was then a stout and pursy man. The latter 

 had him up for assault before the magistrates next 

 day. They sent William Chifney to prison for 

 six months, with hard labour ; and when he came 

 out at the end of his term he offered " to make 

 door mats for a pony " against any other inhabi- 

 tant of Newmarket. Six months of hard labour 

 had indeed made him an expert at picking oakum. 

 Bill Chifney was at the climax of his fortunes 

 when he won the Derby in 1830 with Priam, 

 whom he bought as a yearling for a thousand 

 guineas from Sir John Shelley. In that year the 

 two brothers, Sam and Bill Chifney, lived in ad- 

 joining houses at Newmarket, one of which (that 

 occupied by Sam) was greatly improved and 

 enlarged by the eccentric Duke of Cleveland, who 

 was one of Sam's employers. This circumstance 

 caused great jealousy between the two Mrs Chif- 

 neys, and William's wife persuaded her husband 

 to build a new house so as to cut out their sister- 

 in-law. She vowed that not a single old brick 

 should enter into the composition of the new 



