294 The Derby 



question, with George Fordham on his back, and, as 

 history records, he won from Pahnbearer and Visconti. 



Of course it was all wrong. To argue so was, at any 

 rate, our only consolation ; but a still greater surprise 

 was in store for us — one of our party had backed the 

 winner ! It was the late Palgrave Simpson, the 

 dramatist, who, I think, had never seen a race of any 

 kind before, and took not the faintest interest in sport. 

 He had been talking about some new^ play when the flag 

 fell, and could not understand our being more absorbed 

 in the race — the Derby ! — than in the question as to 

 whether some actor had been right or wrong in his 

 reading of his part the night before. When we, silent 

 with consternation, gazed blankly at the number-board, 

 he was evidently anxious to resume the discussion ; but 

 seeing that his audience was not enthusiastic on the 

 theme, he inquired what had won ; and, when informed, 

 told us, with a mixture of satisfaction and surprise, that 

 he had ' two soverweigns,' as he used to call those coins, 

 on the winner. We endeavoured to impress upon him 

 how^ foolish he had been to think that the horse could 

 win — the horse had just done so, but that was by the 

 way — how worse than remote his chance had been on 

 any reasonable calculation ; when he placidly informed 

 us that he had not thought anything about it. He felt 

 that he ought to have the ' two soverweigns ' on some- 

 thing to signalise his visit to the Derby, and he had 

 chosen Sir Bevys because it was a name he had used in 

 one of his early poems ! So much for knowledge and 

 what is called 'information.' 



The Duke of Westminster was to have his turn, the 

 first of his turns, in the Derby, next year, and with 

 another chesnut, Bend Or. How much of Bend Or's 



