TRIAL OF ' WEATHERGAGE: 317 



place, Benhams, in order to try Weathergage for the 

 Cesarewitch. In this case the difficulty was not 

 as to the weights, but as to the distance at which the 

 trial was to be made. Mr. Parr wanted to try the 

 two a mile and three-quarters, for a race that had 

 to he run two miles and a quarter. With such 

 practice I was totally at variance; and as Mr. Parker, 

 the owner of Joe Miller, who was present, sided with 

 me, Mr. Parr had to give way. "We tried them 

 at even weights the whole course, and Weathergage 

 won as easily as he did the race itself. Mr. Parr 

 assured me repeatedly before the trial that the 

 farther his horse went, the better he was. To which 

 I naturally replied, ' If so, let us see it ;' and the 

 event, I must say, bore out his statement in a most 

 conclusive way. Why he should have objected 

 to try the longer course was a thing I could neither 

 divine then, nor since. One must be the right 

 way, and any other the wrong way, of doing any- 

 thing ; and what reason could be given for adopting 

 the wrong and discarding the right, is beyond 

 the ken of my discerning powers. Yet in trials 

 this is too often done, with disastrous results. 



1 do not know that I have anything else worthy 

 of special record in regard to my own dealings with 

 Mr. Merry's horses. But of that gentleman himself 

 I may perhaps say a few words, and also jot down 

 my recollections of the peculiarities of some rather 

 eccentric personages in his employment. To the 



