1 54 The Post and the Paddock. 



and did some good work each morning in the Park. 

 Bebington was the third stage, and Retford the fourth, 

 Mr. Clarke was not at home when Will gave a passing 

 call at his cheerful hostelrie at Barnby Moor ; but his 

 good spouse took a look at Priam, and sent out her 

 best ale to the lads to drink the Derby winner's 

 health. When they reached the Intake-farm stables, 

 Will Chifney was disposed to consider Birmingham, 

 by Filho da Puta — a great brown seventeen-hand 

 horse, with the Haphazard and Orvile strains in him 

 — as his most dangerous opponent ; till Sam Day, who 

 had ridden Cetus against him at Warwick, assured 

 him that Priam had nothing to fear, and that in his 

 opinion Birmingham would not like the distance. The 

 horse did strong work (though by no means so severe 

 as the Northern trainers chose to report) on the Town 

 Moor up to the Sunday before the race, Vv'hich was 

 then always run on a Tuesday; and mindful of Malek's 

 celebrated bolt to his corn-bin, Will would never lead 

 him on or off it by the Intake-farm Gate, but skirted it 

 through gaps purposely made in the hedges of the 

 Corporation Meadows, and so through the gate near 

 the Rubbing House. The weather for some days 

 before the St. Leger had been so bad, that, as old Will 

 Carter was wont to say, the course was *' deluded with 

 wet," and the twenty-eight starters were nearly up to 

 their fetlocks between the T.Y.C. post and the Red 

 House, at which latter point the water literally stood 

 in pools. Sam did not at all relish the immense stride 

 of Birmingham, as he took his canter alongside of him, 

 amid thunder, rain, and lightning. The brown was so 

 powerful that Connolly could hardly hold him ; and 

 it was all he could do to pull him from the edge of 

 the ditch, into which the pair nearly rolled head- 

 long. Before they reached the Intake turn, the heavy 

 ground had brought Priam to grief ; but he struggled 

 gamely home, and was only beaten by half a length. 

 The Chifneys made no excuse for the horse on the 



