178 TALES AND TRAITS OF SPORTING LIFE. 



market, and tlie profuse style of living tliat caused tlieir 

 establishments to vie with those of the nobles of the land. 

 No man ever had higher notions than poor William 

 Chifney, for he was not a gentleman merely in manner 

 or appearance ; and we can well remember when going 

 through the town on our way into Norfolk the following 

 winter, how the very coach passengers talked of the 

 Chifneys and tlieir doings, as the smart mail phaeton 

 rattled by. But even then the fortunes of their house 

 were failing*, though they knew it not, for they thought 

 they had another Priam in Shillelagh ; and they would 

 have it so, as thousand after thousand was sent in to 

 back him. In vain was it that the Jersey party shook 

 their heads in almost mute astonishment and chagrin 

 when they whispered to each other, as they left the heath, 

 how *^ Plenipotentiary has beaten Glencoe !" The latter 

 certainly did drop away in the great Epsom struggle, but 

 with an honest jockey in poor Patrick Conolly, and such 

 an owner as Mr. Batson, who refused any price for his 

 colt, the Chifneys had no chance against Plenipo, perhaps 

 the very best horse that ever ran. He failed, to be sure, 

 as a stallion, but mainly, as we believe, from the injury 

 inflicted on his naturally fine constitution from that fear- 

 ful dose administered to him at Doncaster, when the 

 horse reeled back to his stable in such an agony as no 

 horse ever left a course before or since. There was no 

 mistake about stopping him then. The Chifneys never 

 fairly got over tlieir beating with the Duke of Cleveland's 

 horse, and although a j^ear or two afterwards they had a 

 good two-year-old in The Athenian, who was long a 

 leading favourite for the Derby, he finished nowhere to 

 Bay Middleton, and was out of the betting some time 

 before the race. From this year William Chifney may 



