176 THE QUORN HUNT 



smart horse, and backed him for pounds, shillings, and 

 pence. Lord Berners x had a horse named Phosphorus, 

 but he suffered so much from a disease in the feet that no 

 one deemed his chance worth thinking about : he had not 

 had a gallop for ten days, and on the eve of the race his 

 trainer went to Lord Berners, and pointing out the 

 horse's condition, asked what was to be done on the 

 morrow ; was the horse to run ? Lord Berners, a quaint, 

 strong-minded old man — he was seventy-seven years 

 of age at the time — was not given to long speeches, 

 so he merely said, "Run? I always run," adding that 

 Phosphorus would have to go if he broke down in half- 

 a-dozen strides from the start. There were a couple of 

 breaks away before the flag fell, and after a punishing 

 finish, Phosphorus beat Caravan by half a length, and 

 the defeat of the latter cost Lord Suffield a pretty penny. 

 It was not long after this crushing loss that Lord 

 Suffield, undismayed by his liabilities, decided to offer 

 himself as Mr. Errington's successor ; but perhaps he 

 would not have been quite so readily accepted by the 

 country, had there not been some idea that Lord Gardner, 

 his brother-in-law, and a magnificent horseman, 2 was to be 

 a sort of sleeping partner in the concern ; this idea, how- 

 ever, turned out to be quite erroneous, as Lord Gardner, 

 though a constant follower of the hounds, at no time 

 had any share in the management, though Mr. Bernal 

 Osborne, the author of the " Chaunt of Achilles," per- 

 haps entertained a different idea, judging at least from the 

 following extract from the above-named publication : — 



But lo ! where following on his chestnut dark, 

 The grinning Gardner gallops down the Park ; 

 Slow in the senate, tho' not wanting sense, 

 Quick in retort, but quicker at a fence ; 



1 Lord Berners was much interested in the breeding of Hereford cattle 



2 It was said that Lord Suffield would have shown to greater advantage 

 over a country had he not been eclipsed by his brother-in-law. 



