Year: 1868

.


IlIng-The Lady Elizabeth Case


The WianIngs on the Derby


Events ON Hand and i'm FrospecI.


LONDON, June 6, 1868.


The operation of making "bricks
without straw" is at once thankless and
Improbable; but fear that in the pres.
ent lull in sporting affairs it is all can
turn my hand or pen to. The storm is
always succeeded by calm, and the
sporting storm which last week burst
over EPSON Downs was no exception to
the rule. The settling on the Derby,
which described in a recent letter, was
the last straw which broke the back of
the unfortunate racing man; and at pres
ent he is, as rule, recruiting exhausted
nature at the seaside or treating himself
with counter irritant in the shape of
the toilsone gayeties of the French cap
ital. If your readers will consider for
moment the vast amount of work,
physical and mental, which for months
the regular sportsman has gone through
in connection with the great event decid-
ed last week, and hundreds of others of
less Importance; his constant hurrying
through the country in every direction,
and its attendant fatigue and worry; the
unrelieved mental strain which "big
book" with its vast and complicated
state of accounts, entails; the chagrin
at losing, perhaps, the earnings of years
over one disastrous race, and the real
hard work of the two days settlement,
they will, perhaps, allow there is reason
for the brief repose of the present week
and excuse for indulging in it to the
hearts content. ----r -


The Lady Elizabeth fasco is now
nearly pumped out" and people of ev-
cry class are heartily sick of the jade's
or unate's-disasters. Her run
ming still excites some little interest and
discussion; but they are about equally
languid. You may still hear persons
wondering show the devil" like the fly
in amber, "she got there's" but they are
instantly y met by expressions of disgust,
and, as the reporters of the gallery have
it, "the subject then drops" The "part-
ing" in fact, has taken place; the mon
ey has been lost and won, and paid and
received, and ''there's an end ont" By
cones, most believe, ought to be bygones,
and when the bygones are of so shady"
a character as those of Lady Elizabeth.
perhaps the least said is the soonest
mended. need scarcely say that there
are two sides among the public in re-
gard to the mystery-one holding that
SO far as the Marquis of Hastings and
his stable is concerned everything is
"fair and square, and that the only ex-
planation of the mares horrible running
is neither more nor less than that she has
hopelessly fallen away from her splendid
two year old form, and that her owner
and his party were not aware of the
fact; while the other asserts round
ly that she has been "got at"
and that her drowsy demeanor,
her languid action and her posi-
tion in Derby and Oaks were due to moth
ing but agood strong dose ofpoison. Some
coloring to this theory is afforded by a
remark asserted to have been made
by Admiral Rous, the veteran handicap
per and undoubted father pro tenn. of the
turf, to the effect that he would be 'sorry
to have as much poison in his stomach as
the mare had in hers" I should be
rather chary of believing in such a
speech unless 1 heard it myself; but un-
doubtedly it is the fact that many per-
sons do not hesitate to confirm it on oath,
and good many of them and very
strong ones toe.-I am very much in
'clined to take the advice of the discern
ing Mr.. Pickwick, and "shout with the
largest party;" but L conceive 1 better
fulfil my functions by recording other
peoples opinions than by expressing my
own. 1t is perfectly possible that Mar
quis of Hastings is as innocent as the
proverbial "babe unborn of anything
like foul play" but his hands have not
been particularly "clean" of late, and
an uncharitable world is apt to imagine
him dirty all over. Even the father of
lies, however, is not so black as he is
painted, and perhaps the safest position
to take is the middle one, always re-
membering the cautious Horation maxim
medic tutissinaus IBIS.


The most contradictory rumors are
ahoat as to the amount he won, or, as
some have it, lost over the race. One
section maintain that he has netted
good stake by the result, though ofcourse
not nearly so much as he would have
pocketed by the victory of Lady Eliza
beth another that though he won on the
event he actually lost on the week-a
statement which is hardly consistent
with the retrenchment and abandonment
of betting-like Fallstaff's "giving up
such and living cleanly," that We're ex-
pected of his lordship.


Sir Joseph Hawley's name has been
good deal banded about during the
week, and sometimes not to his advan-
tage. There are always several people
who can see considerable further through
a milestone than their neighbors, and not
a few of them have been of late winking
in knowing manner, shaking their
heads mysteriously, buttonholing you in
corner and there communicating divers
" dark sayings" to the effect that they
may say what they like my boy, but
Sir Joseph's deep 'un," or 81 know
old feller, for fact that he has won''-
a fabulous amount of money by the vic
tory of his gallant son of Bas Bleu.
Well, some folks will cover the sun all
over with spots, and mud is cheap mis-
sic and easily thrown. 1t is enoug gh to
say that it is generally believed Sir
Joseph has won nothing but the stakes
by the result, and his conduct in start
ing the horse for the public is loudly
praised as an act of self-denial, which is
but another proof of his being true and
honorable sportsman.


Of one thing there is no doubt-that
the scratching of The Earl by the
Marquis of Hastings, just before the