cKAr. IV.] Q, Payne, a Whist-Player. 121 



friend Lord Glasgow_, may lay claim to that distinc- 

 tion. 



It is not a little singular that as with a filly of second- 

 rate ability he seemed as though he were about to defeat 

 the best mare probably that ever was foaled, so with a 

 very inferior animal called *^ Speed the Plough ^^ he acci- 

 dentally beat '^ West Australian '^ — one of the greatest 

 horses of the turf — for the ^'Criterion" of 1852. This 

 astounding derangement of all racing form^ arose from a 

 mal-practice — to speak euphemistically — on the part of 

 the jockey who rode him. Wishing another horse, 

 ^' Sittingbourne/' which was trained by his brother, to 

 win the race, the favourite was deliberately ^^ pulled/^ 

 and '' Speed the Plough ^^ coming up with an unexpected 

 rush, the mighty West had to lower his colours to an 

 animal which two days afterwards he defeated out of 

 sight for the Glasgow Plate. 



A constant attendant at race-meetings, anywhere and 

 everywhere, no form was more familiar at such places 

 than that of the wearer of the black frock coat, and the 

 black and white linen necktie. It used indeed to be said 

 of George Payne, that if all the money he had spent in 

 the hire of post-chaises in pre-railway days had been 

 capitalized, the interest would have formed a fair income 

 for a moderate man. 



In addition to racing, cards and speculation of every 

 description contributed to dissipate the originally splendid 

 fortune of the owner of Sulby_, Pytchley, and other North- 

 amptonshire estates. At a time when whist took high rank 

 as a science, though George Payne might have been in- 

 chided among the *^ wranglers^^ he could at no time have 

 considered himself the equal of Lord Henry Bentinck, the 



