THE OLD DUKE OF PORTLAND. 133 



judge of racing. The horses were trained by Mr. 

 .Richard Prince, at Newmarket, and generally ridden 

 by my father. All his horses were run, as they 

 should be, in the most straightforward way. He 

 disliked a jade, and ran his horses long courses, 

 insisting on the most being made of them. He had 

 Skip Jack, Indus, Stainborough, Screw, Tiresias, Comi- 

 cal, Theban, and others. In 1819, Tiresias won him 

 his only Derb}^. The victory was said, at the time, 

 to have been due to the number of false starts ; and it 

 was, moreover, alleged that these had been pre-arranged 

 from sinister motives. But the Duke, we may be 

 sure, had no hand in any such manoeuvring, if it 

 did take place. Indeed, so annoyed was he at the 

 rumour, that he never ran a horse in the race after- 

 wards, thus keeping to his word expressed at the 

 time. This, of course, occurred before I knew his 

 Grace ; but I give it on the authority of my father, 

 who was likely to know the truth of the matter. 



I have now to relate one amusing and characteristic 

 incident in relation to his racing. When Ampliiaraus 

 won for him at Newmarket, he rode up to the old 

 Red Stand saddling enclosure, to which in those days 

 privileged persons on horseback had the entree, a 

 right now done away with, and waited until my 

 father returned from weighing, and had mounted his 

 hack. Then, before all the people, his Grace ex- 

 claimed, in an audible and solemn voice : 



' John Day, you are a thief !' and, without waiting 



