The Darley Arabian, 241 



a five thousand book. The Derby, Oaks, and St. 

 Leger contented Highton's book-yearnings ; and 

 " Goose " Davis never made one at all, but laid it on 

 hot and thick against the favourites. This was also 

 Crutch Robinson's line ; and he very seldom de- 

 scended on to London from his much-loved Staley 

 Bridge, except for the Derby and Oaks week. It 

 would have been well for Will Ridsdale if he had been 

 as wise ; but he would try his hand in a half-and-half 

 way, and his lop-sided book fairly beat him in the 

 long run. And so, as the years drew on, the old bet- 

 ting-giants died out, save and except Mr. Gully ; the 

 younger generation adjourned to the new Subscription 

 Rooms, and the number of bookmakers became 

 multiplied by ten. 



We would fain, too, follow the fortunes of that 

 coach-and-four which rattled over the stones each 

 Friday before Doncaster from " The Corner " along 

 the Great North Road, with Richard Tattersall. 

 Charles Mathews, Young the tragedian, and three or 

 four of those bookmakers as its merry freight ; and be 

 content even with reporting their "Table Talk" on 

 Mameluke, Velocipede, Rowton, or Priam, when they 

 reached the half-way hostel at Alconbury Hill. Alas ! 

 '^Doncaster {71 four hours'' has supplanted this pleasant 

 old custom. It has gone for ever with four-mile races 

 and Portland Plates, where Lord Bathurst's pig-tail 

 and the Duke of Grafton's umbrella have gone before 

 it ; the Kents no longer saddle some two-and-twenty 

 for the Duke and Lord George, on a Ham Stakes 

 afternoon ; and boy-handicaps and '' milk fever " are 

 the characteristics of an altered time. Still, with all 

 its faults and failings, the Arab will weary of his mare 

 and the Kaffir of his lance before an Englishman 

 becomes quite indifferent to " a true and correct list." 

 National instinct makes him love to be within ear-shot 

 of that cry at least once or twice in a summer, and 

 none other can lure a hundred and fifty thousand, with 



R 



