184 THE RACE AND ITS RESPONSIBILITIES. 
as a sheepskin over her loins, and gave orders that she was not 
to leave the box for a fortnight. Now had this been known 
“outside the stable” what would have been the result? Why, 
an outburst of indignation because she was not immediately 
struck out; and the affirmation that if anything could have 
induced an owner to strike out early, this was the case in which 
to have done so. But “whilst there is life there is hope,” and 
here hope was realised beyond expectation. I had my suspi- 
cions that the mare was suffering from colic,and not from in- 
flammation ; so the bleeding and blistering were delayed and 
only the sheepskin used, and a little turpentine given intern- 
ally, which had the desired effect, the recovery being as sudden 
as the attack—as is often the case in spasmodic affections. 
The day after, the sheepskin was taken off, and she took gentle 
exercise, and afterwards resumed work, notwithstanding the 
injunction that she was not to leave the stable for a fortnight. 
She ran at Doncaster, beating Sad//y and others in the Park 
Hill Stakes, making the whole of the running; and the same 
day, divided the Doncaster Stakes, without running for it, with 
Lord Derby’s Longbow. 
_ Now had the mare hada relapse near the time, and so could 
not have run, the whole thing would have been denounced as 
a swindle. The charge would have been strengthened by the 
opinion of the veterinary surgeon, that of an able man, and 
one that doubtless the circumstances within his knowledge 
justified him in forming; and once more it would have been 
placidly concluded that she had been left in for the purpose of 
obtaining money from the public. 
There is no more remarkable case than that of Hermit, in 
1867, and one which will be in the recollection of most of my 
readers. Qn this occasion it was implicitly and almost uni- 
versally believed that a catastrophe had befallen him. A few 
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