started, and there were as many baulks and falls. Wild Harry was leading, and came down in taking a hurdle, when as Jane, the next animal, was passing, several persons rushing between the mare and the leap, prevented her going over. M r . Dewing, the rider of Wild Harry, was lifted into the saddle, and, resuming the race, came in cantering. Jane followed, and her rider, Mr. Main, jun., objected to the help given to Dewing. A s Dewing after the race was going from the weighing stand to the Stewards' enclosure, he was bludgeoned by a ruffian and for a few moments it was thought he was killed. H e was lifted in a state of insensibility off the ground, carried on board a steamer, and conveyed to Melbourne. H e remained in a precarious state for several days at the Pastoral Hotel in Queen Street. A reward of ;£ioo was offered, and the murderous assailant, w h o was subsequently identified, received a sentence of twelve months' imprisonment. In after years an appreciative modern Government rewarded the political services rendered by this same individual by appointing him a J.P., and one of the dispensers of justice to H e r Majesty's subjects. This meeting was characterized by m u c h violent rioting on the outskirts of the course. O n one of the evenings M r . Edward Argyle was quietly riding h o m e from the day's fun, but fun of another kind lay in wait for him on the road. Three scoundrels waylaid and attempted to murder him. H e rode for his life for two miles, pursued by the yelling savages, was at length overtaken, felled from his horse by a blow with a loaded whip-handle, and whilst on the ground was kicked and stoned to the very verge of death. His murder was prevented only by the galloping up of a M r . Page, by whose intervention he was saved. A person named John Maher was afterwards arrested as one of the offenders, and tried at the Criminal Sessions. H e was convicted of an assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and Judge A'Beckett sentenced him to transportation for life. H e was sent away to V a n Diemen's Land, and died there after a few years' penal servitude. This unfortunate person, though his guilt was undoubted, was said to be the pliant instrument through which another party, w h o took good care to abstain from any overt participation in the disgraceful outrage, wreaked vengeance for some personal enmity entertained towards Argyle.
PETREL.
There was no public man in the province now half such a favourite as the unknown bush-hack, who had become so famous that hero-worship, if such a sentiment existed, was for the time banished and horse-worship reigned in its stead. T h e n a m e of Petrel was a household word. Everyone was asking w h o was Fetrel; where he came from ; w h o was his sire ; his dam, and what was his pedigree ? But poor Petrel had no place in a stud book. H e was a species of foundling, picked up by chance, and columns were written about him in the newspapers—much of it pure gossiping invention. T h e following account of his antecedents is, I believe, substantially correct. A Sydney racer, known as Steeltrap, was supposed to be his sire, and there was a strong family resemblance between father and son. All that is known of Petrel's d a m was that in 1841, a m a n journeying H e had in his overland from Sydney to Adelaide stayed for a short time at the Grampians. possession two fine mares, supposed to have been stolen, and both in foal. T h e stranger found employment on the station of a Mr. Riley, where the mares foaled and one of the youngsters was Petrel. They remained there for a couple of years, and in 1843, when horseflesh was beginning to c o m m a n d something like a price, John Giveng, an overseer of Dr. Martin, bought both colts for ,£36. Petrel was then turned into a stock horse, there was m u c h speed in him, and he exhibited as a sort of show animal before strangers. O n e day as several stockmen were out riding, an emu was sighted, a hunt extemporized, and Petrel not only distanced all the others, but ran the emu down. Petrel at this time was rising four years old, a dark chesnut, 16 hands 1 inch high, the head beautifully formed; but the build of the animal, though symmetrical, seemed as if too powerful for a racer in the hind quarters. This imparted a clumsy appearance, but the same indications have distinguished some of thefleetestEnglish horses. Distance, whether long or short, or weight light or heavy, were matters of small m o m e n t to him. M r . Colin Campbell soon heard of this rough diamond, and wishing to have him, the ownership was exchanged by Mr. Campbell swopping a
