48 THE BLUE RIBBON OF THE TURF. 



taken seriously ill about the date of the Epsom 

 summer meetincf in 1801, his friends thous^ht it risrht 

 that he should be visited by a clergyman, in order 

 that he miij;ht receive some reliqious consolation before 

 his death. When the parson arrived at Cox's house, 

 he found that the poor man was speechless ; but from 

 the efforts he was making to address him, the good 

 priest thought that he must have something on his 

 mind of which he was anxious to disburden himself, 

 ■whereupon he earnestly exhorted him to relieve his 

 overburdened mind by confessing his secret, no matter 

 what it might be. Making a terrible effort, the dying 

 man rose up in his bed, and, with the dews of death on 

 his forehead, said in hollow tones to the expectant 



clergyman: 'Depend on it, Eleanor is a d d fine 



mare !' which were his last words, for no sooner had he 

 gasped them out than he fell back dead. 



As was the rule of several of his racing contem- 

 poraries, Lord Grosvenor bred his own horses, John 

 Btdl, winner of the Derby in 1792, being the sire he 

 most esteemed, as was evidenced by the fact that six 

 colts got by him had been named for the Derby before 

 he died. Three times in the course of five years was 

 Lord Grosvenor hailed winner of the ' Blue Ribbon,' 

 whilst that noble horse has contributed as many as six 

 to the list of Oaks winners. Born in l7ol, and com- 

 mencing his career on the turf at the age of twenty- 

 two, his lordship speedily became the owner of a 

 magnificent stud of race-horses. However, at one 

 time he was so very poor that he would have been 

 obliged to abandon a match by which he stood to 

 Avin a very large sum of money — it was the match 



