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TRIALS. 



•*Oh! Sutton, Stamford, Woodcock, Larkin ! 

 Pray look out sharp, or he'll be darking ; 

 He watched the trials others made, 

 And still will follow the same trade ; 

 And near the Devil's Ditch be seen, 

 'Gliding at moonlight, long and lean.'" 



TOMMY PANTON, surnamed " The Newmarket to 

 Long," is here the theme ; and with "^i*- 

 true minstrel's Hcence, his trainer bones are supposed 

 to moulder near the Ditch Stables. More than eighty 

 years have gone by since he watched the trial horses 

 as they came out with jockeys " up," at twilight or at 

 dawn, to have their question put, and what scores of 

 them have not answered it true ! Bronze was beaten 

 so many lengths by Wretch, that she was merely 

 started to make a pace for her in the Oaks, and yet 

 she won easily. Azor had pleased Robson so little, 

 when tried collaterally with Student, that he merely 

 went to Epsom to " valet him ;" and yet when Buckle 

 holloaed for an opening, and Robinson pulled his horse 

 almost into the furze to let him up, that 7 to 4 

 favourite stood still, and was seen no more. Czar 

 Peter and Lady Brough also played c^j Meiiish's 

 havoc with the book of Colonel Mellish, Mistake with 

 who had backed the Czar after getting his ^"^^ ^^^^'*' 

 measure, that morning for little short of five thousand. 

 Will Edwards' instructions on her ladyship were 

 merely to go along for a mile, and so rigidly were they 

 obeyed, that near the Duke's Stand it was Suffolk to 

 a shepherd's dog on her, as she came on nearly a dis- 

 tance .in front, and a regular Ring panic with her. 

 Well might Sir John Shelley ride round and round the 

 mare, as she was unsaddled, as if struggling to pierce 

 the mystery how the Colonel had tried so wildly ; 

 while Ben Moss, who rode her ladyship in the trial, 

 absolutely groaned with despair. 



K 



