The Darley Arabian. 221 



was walked to the rail, and groomed all the way in 

 the railway-box, to get him a trifle into order. Then 

 arose another difficulty, as to who was to ride him. 

 Nat, who remembered his jump on the Iron Duke 

 at Manchester that May, quite disdained the job, and 

 told Winteringham that he " wasn't going to have any 

 harlequin tricks played off on /«';;/." One, if not two 

 more declined, under the impression that they were 

 going to appear in the " comic countryman" line ; and 

 at last John Sharp consented to try, if they would give 

 him twenty pounds, win or lose. The sum was ac- 

 cordingly promised ; and the horse gave him plenty 

 to do, as he was all over the course up to the hill. 

 Going down the hill, John obeyed his orders to 

 the letter, and set him off at his best pace, about 

 fourteen miles an hour, which soon brought Belus to 

 a dead stop. At first the ring thought it was coining 

 money to lay 100 to one on Belus , and then they 

 rubbed their eyes, and never could exactly make out 

 how the horses seemed to change places, as if by magic. 

 Poor Frank Butler's very last Doncaster ride, on Grey- 

 leg, who had been fetched from Newmarket on the 

 Friday morning, was equally absurd ; and the St. 

 Leger course in both instances was happily got over 

 in something under fifteen minutes ! After his victory, 

 Semi-Franc retired from public life ; and Semiseria 

 became the property of the Prince of Orange for five 

 hundred guineas. 



Buzzard was a very nice brown bay, the property 

 of Mr. Lambton. He was too near for a Blacklock, 

 and wore a leather cap, in his races, over his blind 

 eye. 



Brutandorf, who was by Blacklock out „ ,_ , . 



r T^ r, f 11 ^ Brutandorf. 



01 a Pot-8-o s mare, was a sad pheasant ; 

 and Bill Scott warmly vowed, when he got off him, 

 after the St. Leger, that when he called on him, " the 

 great mucky beggar rolled his tail, and would have no 

 more of it." He was a gluttonous, thick-fleshed horse 



