240 The Course, the Camp, the Chase 



ever flowed from his lips. As he never spoke without 

 having first thought over what he was going to say, he 

 never varied from his statement, and his opinion was 

 relied upon by everyone who sought it, while his memory 

 was marvellous. 



In 1892 I had a long conversation with him about 

 racing, and jotted down his views as follows : — 



" I am eighty years of age next birthday, and I have 

 seen some ups and downs in that time. I was judge for 

 forty years. No, I did not judge in the match between 

 'Flying Dutchman' and ' Voltigeur ' ; that was in 1851, 

 and I did not begin till the next year. ' Dutchman ' won 

 pretty easy ; he would have won the year before, but Lord 

 Eglinton made a mess of it ; he wanted to make a show 

 of his horse, and he told Marson, ' Now, just you go on as 

 hard as you can, and win as far as possible.' If he had 

 told him to wait he would have won, as the horse was 

 not quite fit. ' Voltigeur ' ran the dead-heat with ' Euss- 

 borough ' on the Wednesday, and then ran off the dead- 

 heat ; and won the Cup the next day. It never was a 

 dead-heat. ' Voltigeur ' won right enough the first time, 

 only Clarke gave it against him. I stood close to Clarke's 

 box, and I never said a word. Clarke used to have both 

 York and Doncaster, and he wanted to give up, and said 

 to me, ' Now I think we can arrange this. I'll give York 

 to you, if you will let my son have Doncaster,' and so we 

 settled it. I was judge forty years. I saw ' Blacklock ' 

 win here on Knavesmire. He was a wiry, hot, fidgety 

 horse, but a rare stayer. 



" Yes, it isn't always easy to judge in close races, till 

 you've had practice, then it's as easy as A B C. I could 

 always tell at the distance who was going to win. Archer 



