198 Silk and Scarlet. 



tried it, he went right on end, and struck his head 

 into the plaster ceiling of his box ; and a little egg- 

 shaped indentation which still tells of " Lanercost, his 

 mark," had much more interest for us in our Northern 

 wanderings than Belt Willie's armour in the old 

 Banquet Hall. Among modern horses, Lord Zet- 

 land's Tros, in every point but length, most strongly 

 resembled him, although there was no earthly affinity. 

 Harry Edwards took to the flannels again, and " got 

 him out " gloriously in the Newcastle St. Leger, and 

 then he passed into Mr. Ramsay's hands for 1500/. It 

 was in the once famous green and yellow of Barnton 

 that he accomplished his best feat of giving Hetman 

 Platoff, who was as fresh as he was stale, eleven pounds 

 for his year, and beating him for the Cambridgeshire. 

 Never were two horses greater opposites. Hetman^ 

 as the stable-boys say, " might have been ridden with 

 a woman's garter;" whereas Lanercost, like his par- 

 ticular friend Melbourne, always had his head on his 

 jockey's arms, and would make a race Avith a donkey. 

 To judge from the amount of persuasion he required 

 to move him, he was nearly as thick-skinned as Bruns- 

 wick, who used to go six miles and wear thick double 

 hoods and quarter pieces, &c., whenever he had to 

 sweat. The last vision we had of Lanercost, in his 

 racing days, was crawling round the turn for home at 

 Ascot, and his action quite gave us that impression, 

 which had more than once flashed across Templeman, 

 that his back was broken. Still, Mr. Kirby was not 

 the man to give him up when there was a shilling to 

 be made, and despatched him to Liverpool a month 

 after for the Cup. The poison was, however, still 

 lurking in his system, and he broke out into such a 

 black sweat the day before, that he was sent home to 

 Yorkshire, and the Turf knew its great modern four- 

 miler no more. He had all the requisites of a racer — 

 fine arched loins and a beautiful back, and with the 

 best of legs, if they had not been afflicted with corns. 



