A Word on Knavesmire. 261 



Edwards up, defeated Memnon and Sam Chifney at 

 York, and a painting of the finish, by Herring, hung in 

 the dining-room at Hawkhead. We have looked over 

 many hundreds of Mr. Herring's portfolio horse 

 sketches, and we still think Actaeon the most beauti- 

 ful. The chestnut's great peculiarity was that he 

 would never leave his horses. He once had a race 

 with Florismart, at York, when the latter broke down 

 at the Bishopthorpe turn. Clift scrambled along as 

 he could to the finish, and Actaeon stuck resolutely to 

 him in a slow trot, and it was all his jockey could do 

 by clapping and encouraging him to get him to win 

 by a neck. In the great race for the Purse, Harry 

 Edwards made his effort, about a hundred yards 

 from home, and got a neck in front, but the chestnut 

 put his toes into the ground and "retracted" so ter- 

 ribly in the last three strides, that when Sam Chifney 

 " collected" Memnon and came with one of his rushes, 

 victory was only cut out of the chestnut by a head. 

 Edwards struck him three times, and, as they say, 

 " with a will." 



The race in which Newminster was defeated by 

 Calculator, was the most sensational we ever witnessed 

 at York,* but we have heard that it was nothing to 

 the scene when The Miner seemed suddenly to start 



* Weights, which began at a thumping twelve stone early in the 

 eighteenth century at York, gradually slid down to gst. in 1 75 1. By 

 1756 the Sst. 7lbs., which held its own for a century, had appeared at 

 Doncaster ; and in 1 760 the York Subscription Purses were at 8st. 3lbs. 

 Six years later, matches at four miles were made at 7st. ; and, in 1786, 

 three-year-olds were carrying 5st. 7lbs. and a feather. Of course, in 

 Give and Take Plates the weights had been very low for many years 

 before that, and were even calculated by ounces. They had been given 

 up and quite forgotten until some clerk of the course or other, in 1839, 

 introduced one into Scotland, without having duly mastered the proper 

 distance between the fore and hind feet when the horse is measured. 

 Accordingly, the old stone was disinterred from one of the York rub- 

 bing houses ; and it was ascertained that 5ft. was the distance, and that 

 2ft. was allowed between each of the hind as well as the fore feet. 

 Under the system, horses of thirteen hands carried 7st., and 140Z. were 



