Lord'Darlidoton and Mr. ThornhilL 127 



was no wonder," as TJic Zz/^ remarked, "that he so 

 often departed up the North-road hke a ' Knight of 

 the Rueful Countenance,' and in no great cue for the 

 banter and nut-brown ale of the cheery Boniface of 

 Barnby Moor." Accident foiled him on The Alderman ; 

 Priam began to give in before the superior stride of 

 Birmingham and the heavy ground at the Intake 

 farm ; and Mameluke only scuffled off at the eighth 

 attempt, about 100 yards in the rear of Matilda. It 

 was fully believed at the time that the false starts in 

 this last race were got up by the Northern jockeys, 

 who were dreadfully jealous in those days of having 

 their great prize snatched from them by a Southern 

 Derby winner, and still worse by a Newmarket jockey. 

 Perhaps, however, the animals on which many of 

 them were mounted had as much to do with making 

 a scene as the jockeys themselves. It used, indeed, 

 to be a common bet among divers low parties, that a 

 certain number of horses, say twenty-five, would come 

 to the St. Leger Post ; and accordingly they would 

 scour the country for horses which were certain, in 

 the ordinary course of things, not to start — bring them 

 up from grass, or anywhere, put a jockey or a bumpkin 

 on them, and give them orders to pull up as soon as 

 they decently could. Of course, owners did not 

 demur to lending their animals for 25 sovereigns for 

 the day, as it just covered their/./, stake liability; 

 and thus the taker of a 1000/. bet of this kind was 

 known to clear nearly 900/., after all his spirited 

 outlay ! Geloni, who owned to white legs and a white 

 tail and mane, was suspected to have been run on 

 this system in Mameluke's year, as he was ridden by 

 a lad in gaiters, who pulled him up before they 

 reached the road ; and horses like those, whose own 

 chances were nil, were just the ones, designedly or 

 undesignedly, to kick up a devilry when a Derby 

 winner came to the post in a fret. 



There were those who thought that Sam had waited 



