OBJECTION TO ' BLOOMSBURY.' 97 



essayed to deprive Mr. Eidsdale of the fruits of the 

 victory of his horse Bloomsbury in the Derby of 1839. 

 The ground of his complaint was a false and in- 

 sufficient entry, and Lord George chivalrously claimed 

 the race for Deception, quite against the wishes of her 

 owner, Mr. Fulwar Craven, and brought an action to 

 prove his case. He was defeated, and to anyone but 

 a tyro, such a result would appear inevitable. For 

 in that year Rule 58, summarised, stood as follows : 

 ' If any horse is objected to before ten o'clock in the 

 morning of the day of starting, the owner must pro- 

 duce a certificate or other document to the stewards 

 or other authorities ; but should the qualification of a 

 horse be objected to after that time, the person making 

 the objection must prove the disqualification.' In the 

 case of Bloomsbury, the injustice of the objection is 

 most apparent. The two stewards, gentlemen of the 

 highest honour, were invited by Lord George to 

 invert, and in fact did invert, the order of things ; and 

 instead of leaving him, as acting for Mr. Craven, or, 

 in truth, for himself, to prove this alleged disqualifi- 

 cation, as the rule referred to directed, called upon 

 Mr. Eidsdale to prove his qualification. With this 

 demand Mr. Eidsdale, though under no compulsion 

 to do so, readily complies, proves his case to the satis- 

 faction of the stewards, and the race is awarded to 

 the winner — to put it in the only correct way. 



In justice to the stewards, I submit the account of 

 this business that appeared in the ' Racing Calendar' 



7 



