374 RACING CAREER OF SIR \V. H. GREGORY. 



common passion for the Turf. Lord George was 

 fifteen years older than his Irish friend, and both 

 had commenced their racing careers at the earliest 

 possible moment. Sir William was not yet tM^enty- 

 two, as I have already said, when, accompanied 

 by the late Earl of Winchilsea and other under- 

 graduates, he rode, in 1839, on a series of hacks, 

 strewn along the road, from Christ Church to 

 Epsom and back, to see the Derby won by Mr 

 William Ridsdale's Bloomsbury, an outsider who 

 started at 30 to 1. Sir William's own fancy for 

 the race was in favour of Mr Fulwer Craven's 

 Deception, by Defence — a beautiful mare, who 

 started at 12 to 1, and was brought to the post 

 in first-rate condition by William Treen, who rode 

 and trained her. The " tip " to back Deception 

 was given to Sir William by his old friend, the 

 late Mr Jeremiah Robert Ives, whom all who 

 were well acquainted with him agreed in regarding 

 as the cleverest judge of racing and of its human 

 supporters that they had known in their time. 

 For many years Mr Ives wrote the sporting letters 

 which appeared above the name of "Judex" in 

 ' The Morning Post ' ; and the late Earl of Straf- 

 ford, who knew him intimately, used to aver that, 

 had Mr Ives entered Parliament as a young man, 

 he would inevitably have been selected to fill the 

 post of Chancellor of the Exchequer before he was 

 fifty years old. 



The result of Sir William's hurried visit to 



