A RACE IN A FOG. 109 



ing to the scales, he was objected to on the ground 

 that he had gone the wrong side of a post. After 

 examination, the stewards decided that it was not 

 intended that the horse should go round this parti- 

 cular post, and awarded the race to the winner. An 

 hour or so afterwards Toby Wakefield (or, as he was 

 facetiously styled, 'the Vicar') came up on Sir John, 

 then Mr., Shelley's Tawny Old, and claimed the race, 

 he having in it bolted to some neiodibourinof village. 

 He declared that he was the only one that had gone 

 the right course ; and, strange as it may appear, the 

 stewards reversed their former decision, and there and 

 then awarded the race to him ; but for what reason I 

 could never see. Lord G-eorge was naturally greatly 

 annoyed, and had me up to London before lawyers and 

 others to swear I went the right course. This I could 

 not, and would not, do ; and consequently he had to 

 give up the suit which he had commenced against the 

 stewards for the recovery of the stakes, and thought 

 but little of me afterwards. Yet was his lordship 

 quite in the right in wanting, indeed almost insisting 

 upon me swearing — I was but a boy at the time — to 

 a thing that he must have been well aware it was 

 impossible for me to know ? For who could see the 

 exact course he went in a fog so thick as to have 

 been almost absolute darkness ? 



On one occasion, it may be remembered, Lord 

 George accused Mr. George Osbaldeston, of all people 

 in the world, of swindling, and immediately received 



