Silk 89 



Hamilton had been before them ; and the Holywell 

 Hunt, who were among the first to test 



" The pure Saxon of that silver style" 



from the lips of the then Hon. Mr. Stanley, when he 

 took the chair as "the Derby colt" at their dinner, 

 kept the game alive on the Cheshire side as each first 

 week in October came round. There was always 

 something to come away up the Mostyn Mile, where 

 Birmingham and Touchstone knew such grief, even 

 when Pryse's Ambo, roarer as he was, could keep up 

 his charter no more. But it was not on racing alone 

 that merry club relied. Jack Mytton brought grey- 

 hounds as well as horses to the scene, and cared little 

 whether he met Mr. Lloyd of Rhugett, with the Cham- 

 pion and Lunardi, or Mr. Best with his Muslin and 

 Streamer blood. 



No keener critic than the great Dr. Dr. Beiiyse, of 

 Bellyse of Audlem rode behind the Audiem. 

 slipper that day. A blue dress-coat with gilt buttons, 

 light coloured kerseys and gaiters, a buff waistcoat, 

 and a pig-tail just peeping from beneath a conical 

 low-crowned hat, completed his attire ; while a golden 

 greyhound, the gift of his friend Lord Combermere, 

 lent a tasteful finish to his snowy frill. Never in his 

 life had he seen either Derby or St. Leger, but his 

 eyelids knew no rest in the long night of suspense 

 which followed them. He was a walking polyglot on 

 race-horse pedigrees, from the Godolphin Arabian to 

 Memnon. The Grafton blood in the South, and Mr. 

 Garforth's in the North, were both especially dear to 

 him ; but he would invariably toast General Mina 

 when he won, and troll forth with double emphasis, 

 on that evening, all his lodge lays of "a Free and 

 Accepted Mason," or his famous matrimonial ballad — 



•* We scold and fight, and both repent 

 That ding-dong went the bell. '* 



Pro-eminent and assiduous as he was in his profession. 



