4i2 CAMBRIDGESHIRE TRIALS. 



the partisans of Merry Hart acted, it will only be 

 necessary to say that when Adams left the scales 

 without drawing; the weight, one of them rushed 

 furiously over to the ring and laid £1,000 to £10 on 

 Merry Hart getting the stakes. But others, better in- 

 formed, advocated the claim of the winner. In the inter- 

 val between the race and the decision, a few days after, 

 a good deal of betting took place. Sir Joseph Hawley 

 bore up with unabated zeal till the last in support of 

 Merry Hart conjointly with his noble owner; whilst 

 I believe the Admiral thought from the first that, in 

 justice, the winner was entitled to the race. There 

 was no doubt that the decision Avas, as considered at 

 the time, a fair one. In fact, it could not be viewed 

 in any other light. 



Existing accounts of this curious affair, though ac- 

 curate enough, are hardly so complete as the interest 

 attaching to it can fairly claim that they should be. I 

 will, therefore, venture to give my version of it. 



The scandal arose from the fact that some one had 

 fixed some lead under one of the scales — for there were 

 two scales, one at the lower, and one at the top, stand. 

 It was pretty well known at the time, and is now, who 

 the offender was. A light-weight jockey who rode in 

 the race had wasted very hard, in the hope that he would 

 reduce himself to the exact weight. Unfortunately, 

 on scaling privately early in the morning, he found 

 himself 2 lb. over the weight he had to ride, and 

 fearing, I imagine, that he might be taken off, he 



