392 



rearer, trainer, and rider, had made so famous the "black and silver" 

 of Mr. Bowes. 



When West Australian -won the Leger, and thereby broke all previous 

 record, so frantic with delight was old Isaac that he gave him that night 

 a bottle of champagne in his water, which the good horse seemed very- 

 much to relish. 



Malton, like other places in England at that time, was famous for its 

 gamecocks, and no one had a better breed than the m-ister of White- 

 wall. Many a battle was therefore fought, and that too, in the self- 

 same cosy little dining-room. 



As I made allusion in this chapter to Lord Londesborough's sale, 

 and for comparison with others which I particularised elsewhere, I 

 may here state that it was quite the greatest ever held up to its time, 

 June, 1860, nor does it contrast badly \vith many of those which 

 followed. It realised : — 



For Stockwell — Mr. Bowes 



For West Australian— Count de Morny . 



For Warlock 



For twenty-three brood mares and foals. 

 For fourteen yearlings 



Gs. 

 4,500 

 3,000 



620 

 9,419 

 3,150 



Total, 40 horses 20,689 



Considering the fact that John Scott was at the head of his pro- 

 fession for over forty years, and trained in public for some five-and- 

 fifty, it is not surprising that a continuance of uninterrupted popularity 

 did not attend him. 



Besides being an artist at his trade, and, as I have said, a man of 

 extraordinary sagacity, he was endowed with great perception and 

 resource. In his early and middle life, when in the zenith of his glory, 

 there were no telegraph wires by which could be flashed all over 

 England the doings of his cracks almost before they had quitted the 

 Wolds. Touts, the bugbear of trainers ever since racing was estab- 

 lished, infested the region, but these pests crafty old John was generally, 

 by some artifice or other, able to deal with. Malton, although a town 

 of ancient history, was then comparatively an isolated spot, its fifteen 

 miles from York, the nearest town, being considered a longish journey 

 even sixty years ago. 



Under those advantages, personal and local, "John," as the Tykes 

 called him, was enabled to train his horses in peace, and keep dark 

 until the proper time those which had important engagements. More- 

 over, he could, and often did, get reports circulated concerning them 

 not altogether in accordance with facts. 



When, therefore, the day came, as it so often did, that an outsider 

 from Whitewall carried off some great Southern race, loud at times 

 would be the outcry, particularly so when it was known that the 

 party had thrown in for a big stake. This they generally did, for 



