" The Doncaster Gazette!' 175 



power to break the Ring. It mattered noth- 

 ing to him whether the draining or other 

 improvements on his Donnington estate 

 were stopped, if he only got fresh supplies 

 for another Newmarket campaign. The 

 Ring, on the other hand, had marked him for 

 their own and never left him. They would 

 cluster beneath the Jockey Club balcony at 

 Epsom, holding up their hands to claim his 

 attention, and catching at his replies like a 

 flock of hungry hawks. There he would 

 stand, smiling at the wild tumult below, wear- 

 ing his hat jauntily at one side, a red flower 

 in his button-hole, and his colours round his 

 neck, perfectly cool and unruffled, while k the 

 talent ' made his horse a hot favourite at 

 once, and a few slipped back to the Ring to 

 follow his lead. For a time he was a perfect 

 Cocker ; but he fell at last in the unequal 

 strife, and the men who had ' drawn ' him 

 most copiously were among the first to set 

 their faces sternly against him when, bereft 

 of resources, he wished to see the Heath 

 once more. 



11 The Marquis's taste for the Turf was not 

 an hereditary one. His father's heart was 



