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A HISTORY OF

THE

ENGLISH TURF

BY

THEODORE ANDREA COOK, M.A, F.S.A.

" If I were to begin life again I would go on the Turf to get friends. They seem
to me the only people who really hold close together. I don't know why ; it
may be that each knows something that might hang the other, but the effect is
delightful and most peculiar." — Harriet, Lady Ashburton, to Lord Houghton.

With 3llustration0

VOL. II.

LONDON
H. VIRTUE AND COMPANY, LIMITED, 294, CITY ROAD, E.G.

V'

Main Lib.
A«rfe.Dept.

LONDON :

PRINTED BY H. VIRTUE AND COMPANY LIMITED.
CITY ROAD.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

(VOL. II.)

PHOTOGRAVURES.

FACING PAGE

THE DUKE OF RUTLAND'S CADLAND AND His MAJESTY'S HORSE COLONEL
RACING AT EPSOM FOR THE DERBY OF 1828 ... ... Frontispiece

From the original painting by Barenger. (By permission of Leopold de Rothschild, Esq.)

LADY SARAH BUNBURY, CHARLES JAMES Fox, AND LADY SUSAN STRANGWAYS 243

From the engraving by J. Watson in the British Museum, after the painting by Reynolds.

COLONEL JOHN HAYES ST. LEGER (1756-1800)... ... ... ... ... 273

From the mezzotint by Dupont in the British Museum, after the painting by Gainsborough.

KING HEROD (1758) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 285

From the original painting by Gilpin in 1766 at the Durdans. (By permission of the Earl of Rosebery.)

ECLIPSE (1764) ... ... ... ... ... ... 305

From the original painting by Stubbs at Ehenham Hall. (By permission of Sir Walter Gilbey.)

H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES'S SALTRAM (DERBY, 1783) by Eclipse... ... 332

From the original painting by Garrard in Windsor Castle. (By permission of His Majesty the King.)

FRED ARCHER ON PARADOX ... ... ... ... ... .... 350

From the original painting by J. A. Wheeler (senior). In the possession of W. Brodrick Cloete, Esq.

FLEUR DE Lis (1822) by Bourbon ... ... ... ... ... ... 373

The property of Sir M. White Ridley. From the engraving by T. Lupton, in the possession of Mr. Tattersall,
after the painting by A. Cooper, R.A.

CHIFNEY, WHEATLEY, AND ROBINSON ... ... ... ... ... 398

From the original sketch in oils by Marshall. In the possession of the Right Hon. the Earl of Rosebery.

THE COLONEL (1825) by Whisker ... ... ... ... ... ... 416

From the original painting by H. B. Chalon in 1837. In the possession of Sir Walter Gilbey.

SIR TATTON SYKES (1843) by Melbourne ... ... ... ... ... 436

Led by Sir Tatton Sykes, his breeder, and ridden by his owner, William Scott. From the original
painting in possession of the Right Hon. the Earl of Rosebery.

LORD GEORGE BENTINCK'S CRUCIFIX (1837) by Priam ... ... ... 461

Winner of the Two Thousand, One Thousand, and Oaks. Ridden by John Day. From the original
painting by Herring. In the possession of the Right Hon. the Earl of Rosebery.

VOL. ii. a

137376

11

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

(VOL. II.)

PAGE

King George III. ... ... ... ... ••• ••• ... ... 226

From the painting in the National Portrait Gallery by Allan Ramsay in 1767. (By permission of Walker &
Cockerell.)

The Earl of Upper Ossory's Dorimant by Otho, dam by Babrahain (1772) ... ... 227

(By permission of Mr. Somerville Tattersall.)

Mr. Wilson's Creeper by Tandem out of Harriet by Matchem (1786) ... .. 229

From the engraving by Cook, after the drawing by Sartorius. (By permission of Mr. Somerville Tattersall.)

Sir Charles Bunbury, owner of Dionied and Eleanor ... ... ... ... 231

From an engraving in the British Museum by J. Watson, after the picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Sir Charles Bunbury's Eleanor by Whiskey ( 1 798) ... ... ... ... 23:

From an engraving in the British Museum by John Scott, after the picture by Ben Marshall.

Hylas ......... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 235

From the original painting in the possession of Leopold de Rothschild, Esq.

Gimcrack (1760) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 236

From a drawing on stone by Gauci. (By permission of Sir Walter Gilbey.)

Sir Charles Bunbury's Grey Diomed (1785) by Diomcd out of Grey Dorimant ... 238

From the engraving in the possession of Sir Walter Gilbey, after J. N. Sartorius.

"OldQ." ............................ 239

From a print in the British Museum.

Charles James Fox ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 240

From a print in the British Museum, probably after Karl Anton Hickel.

The Rt. Hon. C. J. Fox's Pyrrhus (1767) ... ... ... ... ... 241

From an engraving by G. D. Stubbs in the possession of Mr. Somerville Tattersall.

Mr. Charles Ogilby's Trentham ... ... ... ... ... ... 242

From an engraving by G. D. Stubbs in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian, after the picture by
G. Stubbs, in the possession of Lord Cobham.

Mr. Thomas Foley's Firetail ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 243

From a print in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian, after the picture by Sartorius.

Fox, the Gambler ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 244

From a caricature by W. Gilray in the British Museum.

A Jockey on the Throne ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 246

A caricature of February, 1794, by Gilray. From a print in the British Museum.

Prospero by Merlin ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 249

(A light chestnut horse ; the jockey wears green jacket and black cap ; the groom in yellow.) From the
original painting by Stubbs, in the possession of the Earl of Rosebery.

Mr. J. Marshal's Little Driver... ... ... ... ... ... ... 251

From a print in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian.

The Prince of Wales's Traveller by Highflyer beating Lord Grosvenor's Meteor by

Eclipse for 500 gs., B.C., Second Spring Meeting, 1790 ... ... ... 254

From the original painting by T. N. Sartorius, in the possession of the Earl of Rosebery.

Marske by Squirt, his dam by Mr. Button's Blacklegs ... ... .

From an engraving in the British Museum by G. D. Stubbs, after the painting by George Stub

Snap (1750) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 257

From the original painting by Francis Sartorius (dated 1766) in the possession of the Earl of Rosebery.

Richard, Earl of Grosvenor ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 258

From an engraving by H. R. Cook in the British Museum, after the picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire ... ... ... ... ... ... 26o

From the original drawing by John Downman, in the possession of the Duke of Westminster.

Shark (1771) with Price, his trainer. By Marske out of a Snap mare ... ... 262

(By permission of Sir Walter Gilbey.)

The Duke of Bridgewater's Shapeless ... ... ... ... ... ... 263

From the original painting by Spencer (1728) in the possession of the Earl of Rosebery.

... 255

bs.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. iii

PAGE

Francis, third Duke of Bridgewater ... ... ... ... ... ... 265

From a drawing by Jane E. Cook, after the engraving by James Heath.

Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon, and Duchess of Argyll ... 266

From a print by Finlayson in the British Museum, after the painting by C. Read (1770).

Evelyn Pierrepoint, Duke of Kingston ... ... ... ... ... 267

From an engraving by Faber in the British Museum, after the picture by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

Mr. Jenison Shafto's Cardinal Puff "by Babram ... ... ... ... ... 268

From an engraving in the possession of Mr. Somerville Tattersall.

Charles Watson Wentworth, second Marquis of Rockingham, owner of Alabaculia,

and Prime Minister in 1782 ... ... ... ... ... ... 269

From the painting in the style of Reynolds, in the National Portrait Gallery. (By permission of Walker &
Cockerell. )

The Marquis of Rockingham's Cato ... ... ... ... ... ... 270

From a print in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian.

The Marquis of Rockingham's Bay Mation (1760) by Sampson, his dam by Cade ... 271

(By permission of Mr. Somerville Tattersall.)

General Grosvenor ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 271

From the original painting by Hoppner in the possession of the Duke of Westminster.

Mr. Thomas Grosvenor ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 272

From the original drawing by Hamilton (1771) in possession of the Duke of Westminster.

Viscount Belgrave ... ... ..*. ... ... ... ... ... 272

From the original painting by Hoppner in the possession of the Duke of Westminster.

The seventh Earl of Barrymore talking to a friend (1791) ... ... ... 273

From an old print in the British Museum.

TAILPIECE. — Preparing to start in 1809 ... ... ... ... ... 274

From a print after Rowlandson in the British Museum.

Protector ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... 277

From a print in the British Museum, after the painting by George Stubbs.

Mr. O'Kelly's Soldier by Eclipse (1779) ... ... ... ... ... 278

From an engraving by S. Alken, after the painting by Garrard. (By permission of Mr. Somerville Tattersall.)

Phosphorus by Eclipse ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 279

From an engraving in the British Museum by J. Scott, after the picture by Marshall.

Dungannon ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 280

From an engraving in the British Museum, after the picture by Stubbs.

Martin by Cade, his dam by Crab ... ... ... ... ... ... 281

From the original painting by J. Wootton in the possession of the Earl of Rosebery.

H.R.H. The Prince of Wales'sAnm7 by Herod( \ 777) ... ... ... ... 283

From a print in the British Museum, after the painting by Stubbs.

Higliflyer by Herod ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 287

From an engraving by F. Jukes in the possession of H. R.H. Prince Christian.

Skyscraper by HigJiflyer ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 290

In the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian.

Lord Darlington's Haphazard by Sir Peter Teazle, dam by Eclipse ... ... 293

(William Pierce is taking off his coat, Sam Wheatley holds the bridle.) From an engraving by W. G. Cooke
in the British Museum, after the picture by B. Marshall.

Lord Derby's Sir Peter Teazle (Derby, 1787) ... ... ... ... ... 295

From an engraving by W. Ward in the British Museum, after the picture by S. Gilpin.

TAILPIECE. — Colonel O'Kelly and his Jockey ... ... ... ... ... 296

From Rowlandson's drawing, called "The Mount," in the Dyce Collection.

Measured Drawing of Eclipse made by M. Vial de Saint Bel to show the movements

of the horse's legs ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 300

First published in 1791.

The Skeleton of Eclipse ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 302

As it may now be seen at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, in Red Lion Square (April, 1902).

Eclipse, ridden by Oakley fin red with black cap) ... ... ... ... 706

From the original painting by J. N. Sartorius in the possession of the Earl of Rosebery.

Mr. Meredith's Shakespeare by Hobgoblin ... ... ... ... ... 309

From an engraving by Roberts in the possession of Mr. Somerville Tattersall.

Lord Abingdon's PotSos by Eclipse (1773) ... ... ... ... ... 313

From an engraving by C. H. Hodges, after the picture by Gilpin. (By permission of Mr. Somerville
Tattersall.)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

IV

PAGE

The Duke of Grafton's Penelope ... ...3*3

The Earl of Darlington's Muley Moloch by John Bull out of Mi-stletoe by PotSos ... 3 » 7

(The figures on the left are Trotter, Hardy, and Thomson, in that order. Tod holds the bridle.)

John Bull (\i^} ... 3'9

TAILPIECE.— The Betting Post in 1789 ... ... ••• 322

(The veteran on the cob is Col. O' Kelly, owner of Eclipse.)

Looby at full stretch ... ... ... ••• ••• ••• ••• 324

From an engraving by F. Babbage, after the painting by John Sartorius. (By permission, of Sir \v alter Gilbey.)

Mr. Wentworth's Chats-worth by Blank ... ... ••• ••• ••• 325

From an engraving in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian, after the picture by F. Sartorius.

Mr. Benjamin Rogers' Aaron ... ... ... ••• ••• 32°

Drawn and engraved from life by T. Burford. (By permission of H. R. H. Prince Christian.)

... ... ••• ••• ••• ••• 327

(By permission of H. R.H. Prince Christian.)

Gimcrack ... ... ... ••• ••• .-•-, '" 328

From the original painting in the possession of Leopold de Rothschild, Esq.

Goldfinder ••• 329

From an engraving by F. Babbage, after the painting by T. Gooch. (By permission of Sir Walter Gilbey.)

Pumpkin ( 1 769) by Matchem out of a Squirt Mare ... ... • • • 33°

From the original painting by Stubbs at Cumberland Lodge.- (By permission of His Majesty the King.)

Mambrino ... ... ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• 33 J

From the original painting by Stubbs in the possession of the Duke of Westminster.

Sir F. Poole's Satellite by Eclipse ... ... ••• ••• ••• ••• 332

From the original painting by Sartorius at Cumberland Lodge. (By permission of H.R.H. Prince Christian.)

Vestri's (ij8o) ... ... ... ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• 333

From the original painting by Sartorius at Cumberland Lodge. (By permission of H.R.H. Prince Christian.)

Jupiter by Eclipse (1778) ... ... ... ... ••• 334

From an engraving by W. Ward in the British Museum, after the painting by S. Gilpin.

Baronet ... ... ... ... ... ••• ••• 335

From a print in the British Museum, after the painting by Stubbs.

HamUetonian being rubbed down after his race with Diamond ... ... ... 336

From an engraving by J. B. Pratt, after Lord Londonderry's life-size picture by Stubbs (By permission of
Sir Walter Gilbey.)

Sir H. Vane-Tempest's HamUetonian (Buckle) beating Mr. J. Cookson's Diamond

(Fitzpatrick) over the Beacon Course, March, 1799 ... ... ... ... 337

From an engraving by Whessell in the British Museum, after the picture by Sartorius.

The Oatlands Sweepstakes at Ascot ... ... ... ... ... ... 338

From an engraving in the British Museum by F. Edy, after the painting by Sartorius.

Mr. Lovvther's Ambrosia by Sir Peter Teazle ... ... ... ... ... 339

From an engraving by Scott, after the painting by Stubbs. (By permission of Mr. Somerville Tattersall.)

An E.G. Table ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3*0

From the print by Rowlandson in the British Museum.

The Trimmed Cock ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 341

From an engraving by Turner in the British Museum, after the painting by B. Marshall.

Fashionable Cockfighting ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 342

By Henry Alken (1821).

The Beauties of Bull-baiting ... .. ... ... ... ... ... 342

By Henry Alken (1821).

Hornpipe leaping over Pepper pot and the Farmer's Son at Lincoln Races, Sept., 1797 343

From an engraving by J. Scott, after Howit. (By permission of Mr. Somerville Tattersall.)

Miss Farren and the Earl of Derby ... ... ... ... ... ... 344

From Gilray's print, "A peep at Christie's," in the British Museum.

The Duke of Bedford ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 345

From Gilray's print, " Sir Solomon in all his glory." (1803.)

Richard Tattersall, d. 1795 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 346

From an engraving by Jones in the British Museum after the picture by Beach.

TAILPIECE. — A Race Meeting in 1789 ... ... ... ... ... ... 348

From the drawing by Rowlandson in the Dyce Collection.

Miss Coiner ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 350

From the original painting by J. N. Sartorius, in 1800, in the possession of Leopold de Rothschild, Esq.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. V

PACK

Moll Tonson and Harefoot at the Well Gap, Newmarket ... ... ... ... ... 351

From the engraving, by Scott, of the painting by Sartorius in 1800.

John Singleton ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 352

From the etching by Haddon, after the drawing by A. R. Hurt.

Oscar by Saltram from a Highflyer mare ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 353

From the engraving by Whessell in the British Museum, after a picture by B. Marshall.

Lord Darlington's Rubens (1805) by Buzzard 354

From an engraving by C. Turner in the possession of Mr. Tattersall, after the painting by J. Barenger.

Selim by Buzzard ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 355

From the engraving by W. Ward in the possession of Mr. Tattersall, after the painting by Chalon.

Sir Charles Bunbury's Thunderbolt ( 1 806) by Sorcerer 356

From an engraving in the possession of Mr. Tattersall.

Sam Chifney, Sen. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 357

Pericles (1809) by Evander ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 358

From an engraving by R. Reeve in the possession of Mr. Tattersall, after the painting by B. Marshall.

The Duke of Grafton's Partisan (181 1) by Walton out of Parasol ... 360

From an engraving by Scott in the possession of Mr. Tattersall, after the painting by Cooper.

Filho da Puta (1812) by Haphazard ... ... ... ... ... ... 362

From the engraving by W. Ward in the possession of Mr. Tattersall, after the painting by B. Marshall.

Anticipation (1812) by Hambletonian ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 364

Lord Darlington's Pavilion, (Chifney up) by Waxy... ... ... ... ... ... 365

From an engraving by W. Ward in the possession of Mr. Tattersall, after the painting by Chalon.

" How to Escape losing " ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 366

From the caricature by Gilray, published in 1791, now in the British Museum.

A Grey Horse from the Stud of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.). 367

From the original painting by G. Stubbs at Cumberland Lodge, by permission of His Majesty the King and
H.R.H. Prince Christian.

A Bay Horse, with Gascon the Groom, from the Stud of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales

(afterwards George IV.) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 369

From the original painting by G. Stubbs at Cumberland Lodge, by permission of His Majesty the King and
H.R.H. Prince Christian.

The Welter Stakes at Bibury, June 1 6, 1821 ... ... ... ... 370

From an engraving in the possession of Mr. Tattersall.

A Brown Horse and Groom, from the Stud of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales (afterwards

George IV.) 371

From the original painting by G. Stubbs at Cumberland Lodge, by permission of His Majesty the King and
H.R.H. Prince Christian.

Newmarket Heath in 1807 ... ... ... 372

From " Davis's Straits/' after a print by Gilray.

Sir Tatton Sykes ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 374

From a drawing by Jane E. Cook.

Charles, Fourth Duke of Richmond ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 375

From a drawing by Jane E. Cook, after the painting by Hoppner.

Hon. Charles F. Greville ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 376

From a drawing by Jane E. Cook, after the painting by Romney.

Augustus, Third Earl of Bristol ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 377

From a drawing by Jane E. Cook, after the painting by Gainsborough.

Arnull and Goodison on Horseback (Arnull is on the outside) ... ... ... ... 378

From an original sketch by Marshall at the Dulrdans, by permission of the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Rosebery.

George IV. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 379

From the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence in the National Portrait Gallery. (By permission of Walker and
Cockerell.)

TAILPIECE. — Frank Buckle's Saddle 381

Photographed from the original relic now in the possession of Miss Buckle.

Lord Grosvenor's Violante (by John Bull], with Buckle riding ... ... ... ... 383

From an engraving by W. Ward in the possession of Mr. Tattersall, after the painting by Chalon.

J.Robinson ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 385

Mr. Henry Peirse's Rosette over Knavesmire (John Shepherd up) in 1809 ... ... 386

From an engraving by W. Ward in the possession of Mr. Tattersall.

S. Templeman ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 387

VJ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Banker (with Butler pointing to him) ••• 388

From the picture by B. Marshall in 1816.

Francis Buckle ............ '" 3QI

From an engraving in the possession of his granddaughter, Miss Buckle.

Frank Butler ...... ••• 394

Antonio (1816) by Octavian ...... ••• ••• ;•• 39

From an engraving by Sutherland in the possession of H.K.H. Prince Christian, after the painting by Hernng.

George Edwards ... ••• 398

St. Patrick (\%\i}\>y Walton ............ .-•• 4OO

From an engraving by Sutherland in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian, after the pamti g by Hernng.

Mr Orde Powlett's Jack Spigot (\^>\K)^ Ardrossan ............. • • 401

From an engraving by Sutherland in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian, after the painting by Hernng.

William Scott ...... ... 402

Theodore (1819) by Woful ............... -.-• 403

From an engraving by Sutherland in ths possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian, after the painting by Herring.

Job Marson ......... •;• 4<H

J. Cartvvright ...... ••• 404

Lamplighter (\*2$ ............... ••• 405

After the picture by B. Marshall.

Thomas Lye ......

J. Holmes ......... 4o6

Nat Flatman ......... •••

Pantaloon (1824) by Castrcl ........................... 4°7

From the original painting by J. F. Herring at Eaton Hall, (liy permission of the Duke of Westminster.)

On the left Rowton (1826) by Oiseau, ridden by W. Scott, who beat Chifney (on the

right) on Voltaire by Blacklock ......... ...... ... ... 408

John Day, Sen .......... ••• 4"9

John Day, Jun ....... ... 409

TAILPIECE. — Relics of Frank Buckle ............... ... ... ... 409

Photographed from the originals by permission of his grandchildren.

Rockingham (1830) by Humphrey Clinker ......... ... ... ... ... 411

From the engraving by J. R. Scott, after the picture by J. F. Herring.

Vespa ( 1 830) by Muley .............................. 412

From the engraving by J. R. Scott after the painting by J. F. Herring.

Touchstone (1831) by Camel ........................... 413

From the original painting by J. F. Herring at Eaton Hall. (By permission of the Duke of Westminster.)

Touchstone at the Stud .............................. 414

From the original painting by J. F. Herring at Eaton Hall. (By permission of the Duke of Westminster.)

Lord Jersey's Glcncoe (1831) ........................... 415

From the engraving by R. Parr after the painting by C. Hancock.

Gallopade ridden by Holmes in the Doncaster Cup of 1832 ... ... ... ... 417

From the original painting by J. F. Herring in the possession of Leopold de Rothschild, Esq.

The Duke of Schleswig-Holstein's Phantom mare ... ... ... ... ... ... 418

From a lithograph by Albrecht Adam in 1839, in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian.

The Duke of Schleswig-Holstein's Moses (by Whalebone] ...... ... ... ... 419

From a lithograph drawn by Albrecht Adam in 1839, in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian.

The Duke of Schleswig-Holstein's Wilna ......... ... ... ... ... 420

From a lithograph drawn by Albrecht Adam in 1839, in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian.

Cyprian (1833) by Partisan ............... ... ... ... ... 421

From the engraving by R. Parr after the picture by J. F. Herring

Mr. Ord's Beeswing (1833) by Syntax ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 422

From the original painting by J. F. Herring at the Durdans. (By permission of the Rt. lion, the Earl of
Rosebery.)

Lord Jersey's Bay Middlchm (1833^) by Sultan ... ... ... ... ... ... 423

From an engraving by Parr in the British Museum after the painting by J. F. Herring.

Harkaway ( \ 834) by Economist ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 424

From the engraving by W. B. Scott, after the picture by J. W. Snow.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. vii

PAGE

Mango (1834) by Emilius ........................... 425

From the engraving by T. E. Nicholson, after the painting by A. Cooper, R.A.

Don John (1835) bY Tramp ........................... 426

From the engraving by W. B. Scott, after the picture by J. W. Snow.

Lord Chesterfield's Industry (1835) by Priam .................. 427

From an engraving by W. B. Scott, after the picture by A. Cooper, R.A.

Mr. Thornhill's Euclid (1836) by Emilius ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 428

From the engraving by W. B. Scott, after the painting by J. F. Herring.

Bloomsbury (1836) by -Mulatto ........................... 429

From an engraving by Archer, after the painting by A. Cooper, R.A.

Charles XII. (1836) by Voltaire ........................ 430

From the engraving by W. B. Scott, after the painting by J. F. Herring.

Coronation (1838) by Sir Hercules ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 431

From the engraving by G. Paterson, after the painting by C. Hancock.

The Marquis of Westminster's Satirist (1838) by Pantaloon ... ... ... ... 432

From an engraving by E. Hacker, after the picture by C. Hancock.

Our Ncll(i%$<)} ... ... ... ...... ... ... ... ... ... 433

From an engraving by Hacker, after the picture by Hancock.

... ... ...... ... ... ... ... ... 434

From the original painting by J. F. Herring at Eaton Hall. (By permission of the Duke of Westminster.)

Nukvith (1840) ......... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 435

From an engraving by E. Hacker, after the picture by C. Hancock.

Blue Bonnet (1839) by Touchstone ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 437

From an engraving by E. Hacker, after the painting by C. Hancock.

TAILPIECE. — The Duke of Schleswig-Holstein's Zampa ... ... ... ... ... 439

From a lithograph drawn by Albrecht Adam in 1839, in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian.

Orvillc ( 1 799) by Bcningbrough ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 442

From the original painting by H. B. Chalon at Newmarket in 1808, now at Cumberland Lodge. (By
permission of His Majesty the King and H.R.H. Prince Christian.)

Mr. Udny's Emilius (1820) by Orville ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 443

From an engraving in the possession of Mr. Tattersall.

Recovery (1827) by Emilius ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 443

From an engraving by R. Parr, after the picture by C. Hancock.

Col. Mellish's Staveley (1802) by Shuttle ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 444

From the engraving by Scott, after the painting by C. Tomson.

Ebor (1814) by Orville ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 445

From an engraving by Sutherland in the possession of H.R H. Prince Christian, after the painting by Herring.

Reveller (1815) by Comus • ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 446

From an engraving by Sutherland in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian, after the painting by Herring.

Mr. Watts' Memnon (1822) by Whisker ... ... ... ... ...... ... 447

From the engraving by Sutherland in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian, after the painting by Herring.

Barefoot (1820) by Tramp ... ...... ... ... ...... ... ... 448

From an engraving by Sutherland in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian, after the painting by Herring.

Jerry (182 1) by Smolensko ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 449

From an engraving by Sutherland in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian, after the painting by Herring.

Lord Scarborough's Tarrare (1823) by Catton ...... ... ... ... ... 450

From an engraving by G. Reeve in the possession of H R. H. Prince Christian, after the painting by Herring.

Mr. E. L. Mostyn's Qtucnof Trumps (1832) by Velocipede ... ... ... ... 451

From an engraving by R. Parr, after the picture by J. F. Herring.

Mr. John Howes' Miindig (1832) by Catton ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 451

From the engraving by R. Parr, after the painting by C. Hancock.

Mr. John Gully, M.P ............................... 453

From a drawing by Jane E. Cook.

John Jackson ... ... ...... ... ... ... ... ...' ... ... 454

From an engraving in the British Museum.

Hon. E. Petre's Matilda (1824) by Comus ............ ... ... ... 455

Fiom the original painting by J. F. Herring in the possession of Leopold de Rothschild, Esq.

Sir Hercules (1826) by Whalebone ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 456

From an engraving by Parr, after the picture by Hancock.

Vlll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Oxygen (1828) by Emilius 457

From the engraving by J. R. Scott, after the painting by A. Cooper, R.A.

Chorister (1828) by Lottery 457

From an engraving by J. Webb, after the picture by J. F. Herring.

Spaniel (\%2$] by Whalebone 458

From the engraving by J. R. Scott, after the picture by J. F. Herring.

Lord George Bentinck 459

From a drawing by Jane E. Cook, after Count D'Orsay.

Elis (1833) by Langar 460

From the engraving by R. Parr after the painting by J. F. Herring.

Lord George Bentinck's Miss Elis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 462

From the original painting now at Newmarket. (By permission of Leopold de Rothschild, Esq.)

TAILPIECE. — The Duke of Schleswig-Holstein's Logic ... 464

From a lithograph drawn by Albrecht Adam in 1839, in the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian.

By permission of

His Majesty the King.

Colt by " Orme " out of " Leveret?

at the Sandringham Stud (September, 1901).

A HISTORY OF

THE ENGLISH TURF.

CHAPTER X

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX.

" Nobiles, tyrannosque et principes, omnes filios Assyriorum, juvenes forma egregia, duces
et magistratus universes, principes principum, et nominates ascensores eguorum.'"

IN the second half of the eighteenth century we find the Turf illuminated with
some of the greatest, and many of the most famous, names in our history. Some of
these names, moreover, are useful to the historian of manners as connecting the middle
of the eighteenth century with the beginning of the nineteenth. Sir Charles Bunbury,
for example, was a famous figure on the Turf and about Town for sixty years : he
was eighty when he died in 1821. " Old O." lived as long a life ; and when nearer
ninety than eighty years of age he was still wallowing in wealth and wickedness, and
regarded by many as one whom it was scarcely decent to name because he refused, out
of deference to public opinion in 1808, to discontinue a mode of existence which had
been a thing of course among the men of 1768. Such names as these carry us from
the days when George III. was a cheerful young King to those of the Prince's
retirement from the Turf after the incident of Sam Chifney and Escape. In all this
time there was a regular racing set as there is now. It was not, as in Charles II.'s
time, dependent on the taste of a monarch. The King, or his brothers, or his sons,
might go or stay away, but my Lord March and Sir Charles Bunbury would be there

VOL. II, HH

King George III-
Ky permission of Walker &• Boiitall.

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 227

all the same. These were essentially racing men in the sense that racing came first
in their lives. In Sir Charles's case there was little or nothing else. In Lord
March's there was the opera, with its Zamperini and Rena, and the rest of his
interesting friends. But all the same he made a very strict business of the Turf, and
his example alone, as that of the greatest " parti " in England, would have ensured
that the sport should be fashionable. With him went his friends, the set which
corresponded with George Selwyn and formed Horace Walpole's "out of Town"
party at Strawberry Hill— Tony Storer, " the bon ton," and Gilly Williams. The
name of George Selwyn is beneath the Jockey Club Resolutions of 1767, and his
West Indian property and official sinecure in Barbados would have enabled him to

By permission of Mr. Somerville Tattersatt. The Earl of Upper Ossory' s "Dorimant. ' '

by " Otho,'" dam by " liabrakai/i." (1772.)

race had he cared to do so. But no horse was ever entered in his name, and he was
quite unable even to show a French visitor round Newmarket. He was far more
interested in the sight (in 1733) of the aged Madame de Q'uerouaille, Duchess of
Portsmouth, who preserved the memory of Stuart dissipations till she was nearly
ninety ; and it is certainly a thousand pities that the lively pictures of Newmarket
which he or Horace Walpole could have written, had they been really interested in
it, are not ours to read.

There was material enough, for the Turf then, as now, was heterogeneous in its
elements. After the regular racing set came that brilliant company which went racing
because it went everywhere, and was keen about racing because it was keen about

228 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

everything, which brought with it, more than the others, the flavour of a various life
and rushed over from Paris to attend a race meeting before hurrying back to
London to upset a Ministry. Of this set Charles Fox was the centre, elegant in his
youth as a Macaroni, fat and a trifle slovenly as he grew older, with his great black
brows, and big wicked good-natured eyes. With him was that " admirable Crichton,"
Richard Fitzpatrick, his greatest friend, a dashing soldier, an irresistible spendthrift,
and brother to the Earl of Upper Ossory, who bred and owned the chestnut Dorimant,
by Olho, one of the finest horses ever raced. Dorimant won the " Great Sweep " of
1776, which was worth 5,200 guineas, four hundred less than Grey Robins next year,
but twice as much as Highflyer s two years afterwards. The same owner's Comus was
a bay son of Olho, who had been purchased from Mr. "Jockey/' Vernon. The title is
still preserved in the name of the Ossory Chestnut Arabian, which stood at Ampthill,
in Bedfordshire. With Richard Fitzpatrick and Charles Fox went the " Hare of
many friends," and Lord " Bully," the great Bolingbroke's nephew, and many another
brilliant creature who helped to give its distinctive character to that roaring, vigorous,
unscrupulous, virile time. "Bully" was divorced from the lady who afterwards
became Lady Di Beauclerc, and was " thought to be too much in the graces of the
beautiful Coventry." He owned Paymaster (by Blank], and Highflyer (by Herod], who
had been bred by Sir Charles Bunbury and was afterwards sold to Mr. Tattersall.
His name is also illustrated by the Bolingbroke Grey Arabian, sometimes called the
Coombe Arabian, and by that Bay Arabian which won a race (B. C. 8st. 7lbs.) at New-
market "for African and Arabian horses " at the Second October Meeting in 1771.

The ladies of this same set were rather a mixture, too. Great ladies were there,
fond of horses, or in the wake of husbands, actual or prospective ; and Italian dancers
were there, chiefly in the wake of Lord March, who would drive them from town " for
the sake of the fresh air." Then came the fashionable blacklegs who were not found
out, who belonged to White's or Brooks's, and whom Charles Fox and his friends
called " the hounds." Dimly in the background we imagine the common
adventurers who had an easier time than now. One modern feature was absent.
The professional bookmaker had not arisen in his vociferous glory, and the
professional backer was as yet only sketched in the universal brain of Charles Fox,
who once, in a late sitting at White's, "planned out a kind of itinerant trade"
(Selwyn is writing to Lord Carlisle), "which was going from horse-race to horse-race,
and so by knowing the value and speed of all the horses in England to acquire a
certain fortune." But neither in that trade nor in any other was a " certain fortune "

I HE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX,

229

to be acquired by Charles Fox. At Brooks's they were betting ^500 to ten guineas
that he would never be worth ,£100,000 clear of debts. They betted, in fact, on
everything — on the Colonies, on the French, at Macao, at Quinze, at Hazard, on
deaths, on births, on appointments, on elections ; but it is significant that the first
wager recorded is Lord Bateman's ten guineas to General Conway on Lord Boling-
broke's colt (1771). Four years afterwards Mr. Codrington laid a hundred guineas
even money against Priestess in the match with Bacchus. In 1776 Mr. Panton has
another hundred with Mr. Pigot on Bellerophon. Two years later Lord Derby bets
Mr. Hanger fifty on his filly by Herod out of a Snap mare. Lord March's wagers were
chiefly connected with the stud. He wagers, for instance, in 1773, that the Godolphin

Mr. Wilson's ' ' Creeper "by" Tandem "out of
"Harriet" by "M<i/c/iem." (1786.)
By permission of Mr. Somerville Tattersall.

Arabian and not Bay Bolton was the sire of Mogul, and, with a curiously persistent
suspicion, that Bay Bolton was not the sire of Whistlejacket. In August, 1750, his
lordship netted (among many other hauls) fifty guineas which Colonel Waldegrave
(with whom Lord Anson went halves) laid against the famous Chaise match, at
White's ; and a month later Mr. Taafe is trying to get some of his money back by wager-
ing two hundred that " the horse Mr. T. bought of the D. of Richmond's groom
by the name of Silverlocks wins two plates of £50 value or upwards in three years."
In 1751, also at White's, for his lordship is quite impartial in his favours, Lord March
takes fifty guineas from Colonel Vane that the horse to which Mr. Vernon gives a
stone in October, in the match with Lord Trentham, wins, play or pay ; and another

230 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

twenty (in 1753) from Colonel Mostyn that Lord Rockingham's horse Scampsonade
beats Lord Northumberland's. Three years later Mr. Fanquier bets Sir John Moore
ten guineas that Mr. Shafto has not so many horses in training in April, 1 767, as he had
at the time of the Duke of Cumberland's death. These are flakes of froth upon the
surface of the torrent of gambling on every conceivable subject. The ivory
counters, valued from IDS. 6d. to 500 guineas apiece, are still preserved, which tell a
sufficiently plain tale, even if the records of the time were not there to make it clear
enough.

It was not merely the idle, or the youthful, or the foolish, who provided the pro-
digious frivolity of the eighteenth century. Men of strong intellect, of refined culti-
vation, of age and high standing, lived openly in England all their lives as a man
nowadays would be ashamed to live a week at Monte Carlo. The Duke of Grafton
took a mistress to Ascot Races whom he was accused of having picked up
in the street. Junius himself could not do justice to the vices of Lord
Sandwich. And when these, with such fit compeers as Sir Francis Dashwood
or Lord George Sackville, were in office, it became abundantly clear that
personal morality was nothing but a party question, and virtue bowed to the
convenience of a salary. Yet apart from such ethical considerations, no more
desirable lot could well have been imagined than that a man should have been born
into that aristocracy at a moment in its culminating vigour, which can only be
compared to the clays of Alcibiades at Athens or of Mark Antony at Rome.
It is at such epochs as any of these three that life has been enjoyed most keenly,
and that literature most brilliantly reflects it. Strongly based within its borders
that society could safely permit absolute liberty of thought and speech ; for its mem-
bers were numerous enough to argue that their own interests were those of the
State, and privileged enough to get the best of everything. The world, in fact, was
made for them, and while they cared nothing whatsoever for all beyond the pale,
they bestowed an amount of attention on themselves which is inconceivable in days
when money counts for more than blood. They enjoyed, too, in their little sallies
against each other's failings, a success which only Aristophanes or Juvenal had had
before them. Every shot told, for everyone knew everything about everybody else.
Unable to surprise, writers were content to amuse. Not having the necessity to
work for its living, society was delighted to gamble for it, and England became one
vast Casino, the headquarters of which were moved from Bath to St. James's about
the end of George II. 's reign. " I could not tell you a teaspoonful of news," writes

Sir Charles hunbury.
Owner of ' 'Diomed ' ' and ' '£leanor. ' '

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

Horace Walpole ; " I could tell you what was trumps, but that was all I heard." In
1765 Lord March wrote to Selwyn : "When I came home last night I found your
letter on my table. So you have lost a thousand pounds. ... As to your banker, I
will call there to-morrow." " Old Q." had his good points. Eventually Selwyn
gave up gambling for high stakes, but not before he had tried to fleece Wilberforce.
The strain upon friendship must often have been excessive. But Charles Fox went
through it without losing a single moment of affection.

One interesting example of an " outside interest" is preserved in the bet which
Sir Charles Bunbury made with Lord Carmarthen at Brooks's, of five guineas to

Sir Charles Bttnbury's " Eleanor'"
by "Whiskey." (1798.)

five hundied, " if, on the 24th November, 1785, we are not fighting France, Spain,
and America, and Lord North First Lord of the Treasury." Of Sir Charles's
younger days there is little to say. One or two letters written to George Seiwyn
from Spa show merely the good-humoured young man of pleasure who liked to chaff
his friends.

He raced from the time he was twenty-three, for his estate at Great Barton, near
Mildenhall, was within easy distance of Newmarket ; and from the day when he
appears as a Steward of the Jockey Club, in 1768, he became a kind of permanent
president of that famous institution, a position he thoroughly earned by creating
various records on the English Turf which can never, in the nature of things, be

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 233

eclipsed. For he won the first Derby with Diomed, he was the first to win both
Derby and Oaks with the same mare, Eleanor, and he was the first to win both
Derby and Two Thousand with the same horse, Smolensko. A great friend of
the Duke of York, Sir Charles Bunbury was first taught the mysteries of the Turf
by Mr. Crofts of Norfolk (owner of Brilliant by Old Crab}. The first good horse
he: owned was Bellario, who always ran second to Eclipse. In breeding he was not
very successful, except in the case of Young Giantess, from whom and Whiskey was
descended Eleanor. With Mr. Ralph Dutton and the polite Thomas Panton he
had, as Steward, the disagreeable duty of taking action in the Escape incident, of
which I shall have more to say later ; but the delicacy of the proceedings may be
imagined from the fact that Sir Charles's famous Eleanor was once beaten by a
common plater at Huntington (10 to i on "Eleanor"}, and next week she beat a
first-rate horse at Egham (10 to i on " Bobadil"}. I have hitherto failed to
discover any greater proof than this against the Prince of Wales. That Sir
Charles did not introduce two- year- old racing will be clear to every reader
of my First Volume. But he certainly countenanced it ; and though the course
called after him at Newmarket was never associated either with that, or with
the infinitely worse yearling races. Sir Charles cannot be excused (any more
than his contemporary members of the Jockey Club) the blame of allowing
yearlings to run at Newmarket. His well-known gentleness to all horses in training
may possibly be taken as the explanation of the short-distance races he also
favoured ; but, on the whole, it is difficult to believe that his influence and his
undoubted integrity were not exercised in a generally beneficial manner upon a sport
which he fostered not only directly in England but, through the Lexington strain of
Diomed, in America as well.

But besides the undying reputation of having been the first to win the Derby, he
enjoyed a distinction which, to be sure, is one of the greatest that can attach to any
man, on the Turf or not : he married the most beautiful woman in England. Sir
Joshua's portrait of Lady Sarah Bunbury is the portrait of a woman not only extra-
ordinarily beautiful, but possessed of spirit and character. She was the youngest
daughter of the second Duke of Richmond, and sister of the lady who eloped with
Henry Fox, the first Lord Holland, and consequently the aunt of Charles, though
about his age, as may be seen in the interesting group I have reproduced which
shows them both at Holland House with Lady Susan Fox-Strangways. The best-
known circumstance of her life is that George the Third wanted to marry her, but
VOL. II. I I

,<U A HISTURy OF THE £i\GLJSH TURF.

-Jt

she has an even greater claim to an immortal place in English History, for, after
being divorced from Sir Charles Bunbury she married the Hon. George Napier and
became the mother of General Sir Charles James Napier, K.C.B., Commander-in-
Chief in India; of General Sir George Thomas Napier, K.C.B. ; and of General Sir
William Francis Napier, K.C.B., author of "The History of the Peninsular
War." It was no doubt largely owing to the services of their father that
Lady Sarah obtained, in 1805, the pension of /Soo she so much needed, through
the help of Mr. Pitt and Lady Hester Stanhope. Her correspondence was
given to the world as I was writing these lines, and I am therefore tempted to follow
her fortunes just a little further before I leave the men and women of the eighteenth-
century Turf in order to look rather more closely, in the next chapter, at their horses.
Many were the men she fascinated ; among them, Lord William Gordon, and that
good, kindly, chivalrous young nobleman, Lord Carlisle, who was one of Fox's
greatest friends and most staunch allies, who was a member of the Jockey Club when
he was two-and-twenty, and who had the love of the Turf transmitted to his veins
from the family of which Bernard Howard was the ornament, in the Stuart days.
Carlisle's constant pecuniary advances to "Charles" crippled his finances more
than any extravagances of his own had been able to do, on the Turf or off it ; but it
was owing to his membership of the Jockey Club that we indirectly learn some
information about Lady Sarah Bunbury at Newmarket during her first years as Sir
Charles's wife ; for Lord Holland wrote to her some playful verses on the subject of
Carlisle's passion, in imitation of Horace's " Lydia, die per omnes " :—

" Sally, Sally, don't deny,
Eut for God's sake tell me why
You have flirted so to spoil

That once lively youth Carlisle?

* * * *

Manly exercise and sport,
Hunting and the tennis court,
And riding school no more divert.
Newmarket does, for there you flirt."

It is clear from all the family records that her return to Goodwood House in i 769,
after the episo.le of her flight with Lord William Gordon, was the beginning of a
very different life to that of the young and high-spirited girl who had married
Sir Charles Bunbury after so nearly becoming Queen of England. She never entered
Sir Charles's house again, and lived in comparative seclusion till George Napier
insisted on marrying her after the divorce of 1776. Sir Charles behaved admirably,

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX.

235

under most trying circumstances, towards Lady Sarah. "Why should not I ?" said
he, " you know I'm not apt to bear malice." It is quite possible that he was more
attracted by the Turf than by the prospect of continual homage, even to the most
beautiful woman in England. To Lady Susan Fox-Strangways, her constant friend,
who afterwards became Lady Susan O'Brien, Lady Sarah writes from Barton in
October, 1762 : "I must now tell you about Newmarket while it is in my head.
. . . . The Duke [of Cumberland] won two matches, and the Duke of Grafton
a plate with a vile horse. Magpie ran and was beat. I saw him and his horses in
the morning, 'tis a dear soul ; I lost my money." Ten days afterwards she writes

." (1770- ? )

again : " Lord Ossory [John Fitzpatrick, second Earl of Upper Ossory] is with us,
and went to the assembly, he is an agreeable, sensible man, and I like him vastly.

. . . I danced with Lord Petre, and he is a nasty toad You need not

have envied me, for my devil of a horse is as lame as a dog, and Mr. B. has been
coursing, hunting, and doing every pleasant thing upon earth, and poor me sat
fretting and fuming at home with Lady Rosse." This looks like " the little rift."
But she refused to acknowledge it, and on October i6th, 1763, she writes again from
Barton to the same confidante : " Pray now, who the devil would not be happy with
a pretty place, a good house, good horses, greyhounds, etc., for hunting, so near
Newmarket, what company we please in the house, and ,£2,000 a year to spend

236

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

(which we then should have clear) ? . . . Newmarket was charming, all the charm-
ino- men were there. Dear Mr. Meynell lost sums of money on a horse of my brother s,
beat by the little mare Hermionc of Mr. Calvert ; its name was Good-wood, and got by
Brilliant ; but I hear he has made up all his losses again at cards at Euston, where
the Duke and all the Newmarket folks are ; he, a fat wretch, has won everything on
earth; poor dear Mr. Greville has lost; Sir John Moore has lost near .£5.000
between quinze and horses. Lord Orford has taken to hawking larks . . poor
Lord Rockingham was there." Again on July 12th, 1765, she writes from Barton :
» There was a meeting of two days at Newmarket this time of year, to see the sweetest
little horse run that ever was ; his name is Gimcrack, he is delightful. Lord

Rockingham, the Duke
of Gra.ton, and General
Con way kissed hands
the day Gimcrack ran.
I must say I was more
anxious about the horse
than the Ministry."

Among the racing
ladies whom Lady
Sarah would be likely
to meet when she was
Sir Charles Bunbury's
wife, and to hear of
when she was a quiet
matron, were Lady Cra-
ven ^the Margravine of Anspach), the Countess of Northumberland, Lady Catherine
Powlett, Lady Bampfylde, Miss Nancy Forster, Miss Martindale, the Duchess
of Rutland, Lady Essex ; and in slightly later years, the lovely Georgiana,
Duchess of Devonshire, Lady Williamson, Lady Haggerstone, and the
Duchess of Grafton ; until at the beginning of the nineteenth century appeared
Lady Shelley, and the Miss Alicia Meynell, known as Mrs. Thornton, who rode
the famous matches against Captain Flint and Francis Buckle. With this last
amazon seems to have begun a period when the ladies of the Turf were both
more numerous and less exclusive, and though there was certainly a kind of inter-
regnum during which the best of the fair sex were conspicuous by their absence, that

By permission of Sir Walter Gilbcy.

" Gimcrack." (1/60.)

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 237

momentary whim of fashion was amply compensated for by the unparalleled devotion
of ladies of the present day to racing in every shape and form, a devotion which
Lady Sarah Bunbury's set would have found it as difficult to understand as to
forgive.

King George the Third's reason for liking Lacly Sarah, apart from her beauty,
was, as he told a friend, " because she spoke her mind so frankly and was utterly
devoid of guile," a quality which is obvious even from the few extracts of her letters
for which I have space here. They throw a better sidelight on details in those times
than almost any I have read. In May, 1782, for instance, she tells us : " I am very
well, in spite of the influenza, for so general an illness has never been known here in
the memory of man." Or again, in September, 1783: "I can tell you no news
except that you must sew some black penny ribbon upon every ribbon and gown you
have of whatever collour, and say it is ' a la Malbrook,' as Louisa Bunbury is now
doing on an old bonnet ; for if you are not 'a la Malbrook ' you are nothing. The
reason ? Why, the Dauphine's nurse sung a Flemish song of the death of ye D. of
M., and in it his page announces it to ye Dss., lout en noir, and so must your ribbons
be." Here and there, too, we hear of Charles James Fox, her constant friend, of his
gallantries with Mrs. Robinson, better known as "Perdita," at Sadler's Wells ; of
the last three comrades whose company he preferred when he was dying — Lord
Fitzwilliam, Richard Fitzpatrick, and Lord John Townshend ; of his death, holding
his wife's hand to the end, and murmuring at the last, to comfort her, " It don't
signify, my dearest, dearest Liz."

" I rise at six," wrote Carlisle to Selwyn, from Spa, presumably before the sad
results Lord Holland noted, " play at cricket till dinner, and dance in the evening
till I can scarcely crawl to bed at eleven. There is a life for you ! You get up at
nine ; play with Raton your dog till twelve in your dressing-gown ; then creep down
to White's ; are five hours at table ; sleep till supper-time ; and then make two
wretches carry you in a sedan-chair, with three pints of claret in you, three miles for
a shilling." There was more variety, at all events, in the career which " Old O."
marked out for himself from early youth. From his earliest days, as Earl of March
and Ruglen, he is the type of the persistent seeker after pleasure, without scruples,
and without the slightest regard for public opinion. The legends of him are awful.
But the really most remarkable thing about him is that he brought to this pursuit a
quality of hard reasonableness and common sense which seldom go with it. Kven
as a young man he betrays this in his letters. They are matter of fact, practical, curt.

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

They have a sort of coldness about them which is rather the coldness of the hard
man of business than the selfishness of the profligate, who is more often than not a
sentimentalist (like George the Fourth) when he writes to his friends. There is
nothing of that sort about " Old O." Everything with him is matter of fact, and his
humour is chiefly shown in grim sneers at people who were not of the same tempera-
ment. He had no sympathy with Selwyn's devotion to the child Mie-Mie, the
daughter of the Marchesa Fagniani, and plainly told him he was a fool to mix himself

Sir Charles Bunbury's "Grey Diomed " (1/85)
by "Diomed" out of' Grey Dorimant.

up with that family. Yet all the evidence goes to show that " Old O." himself was
the child's father. He was interested in politics to the extent of continually noting
in his letters who was to have this or that place, which from his point of view was
all that a man of his class needed to concern himself with. As to the Turf, I have
already given instances of his riding his own horses, and it may be well here to add
what " Chillaby " Jennings wrote after losing several bets with him. Henry Con-
stantine Jennings, of Shiplake, had Royal blood in his veins, and received the
nickname just mentioned from the fact that he was rash enough to match the future

THE JOCKEf CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX

2J9

produce of his Cliiltaby Arabian and certain brood mares against the stock to be
produced at the same period by breeders of far more knowledge and astuteness than
himself. The only colt who proved of any good was Mr. T. Douglas's Emetic, winner
of the 1,200 guineas subscription at Newmarket ; and the " mad Arabian " proved so
savage that he was sent to Mr. Hughes's Circus in St. George's Fields. Mr.
Jennings was also famous lor the antique carving he had bought, which was known
as the Dog of Alcibiades. But neither his taste for art nor his knowledge of blood-
stock was sufficient to enable him to keep
his fortune. He recognised this frankly
enough. " Queensberry," said he, "was
always honourable in his bets, only he was
a far better jockey than any of us." " Old
Q.'s " letters to Selwyn almost invariably
contain news of his racing projects, of his
winnings and losings. In one of them (in
1766) he writes from Newmarket, "Bully,
Wilmington, and myself are left here to
reflect coolly on our losses and the nonsense
of keeping running-horses." But Jesse is
wrong in saying that he retired from the
Turf when he succeeded to the Dukedom
in his fifty-fourth year. Jesse had not seen
those letters from Selwyn to Lord Carlisle
which the Historical Manuscripts Com-
mission recently published. They mention
the Duke's racing at a much later date, c.ff.
in August, 1789, Selwyn writes from Rich-
mond : " I did not come hither till to-day

because I was resolved to stay to see the Duke set out, which he did this morning
for Newmarket, from whence he goes with his doctor to York. He said that he
should not go to Castle Howard, which I looked upon as certain, as that the
Princes would be there. It would have been in vain to have held out to him the
temptation of seeing his god-daughter, and I knew that if I had suggested it he
would have laughed at me, which would have made me angry." Another instance
of " Old Q.'s " half humorous insensibility is his saying to Wilberforce of the

- Old Q."

240

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

Thames at Richmond : " I can't see what they admire in this river. There it goes,
flow, flow, all the day long." His portrait in advanced age shows a hard, humorous,
clever old face, with a touch of Voltaire in it. His manners are said to have
been perfect to the end. He is buried — credite posteri /—beneath the altar of St.
James's Church, Piccadilly, where, let us hope, he rests in peace.

If " Old O." was a granite rock of self-indulgence, Charles James Fox was a
rushing torrent. I have no space here— even if it had not been done so well before by

Sir George Trevelyan
and the Rev. William
Hunt — to give an ade-
quate account, even on
his social side alone, of
this the most remark-
able Englishman of his
century. He had
genius of intellect and
genius of temperament
both. He had great
knowledge, though not
wisdom, in affairs, and
a splendid eloquence.
He had taste and
scholarship and loved
his books ; he had a
quick and deep sym-
pathy with others ; he
could feel very strong

affection ; he was an all-round sportsman. An inveterate gambler, and volage to
the core, he half ruined his family and many of his friends, and drank as hard
as any of them. Rochester's epigram on his ancestor Charles the Second (whom he
resembled in more points than his face) applied most accurately to Charles himself.
Only a society so secure and so intimately connected as that into which he had the
good luck to be born would have tolerated his social and political excesses. Allowing
for them and for the injury he did his friends in money matters we must admit that
Fox was the best-loved man of his day. He passed at once beyond barriers over

Charles James Fox.

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 241

which Burke and Sheridan never stepped, and did not seek admission to the highest

circle because he was a part of it from the first He was " Charles " to all the world,

including George, Prince of Wales, which, when we remember his immeasurable

superiority in intellect to the great majority of his contemporaries, is much ; for it is

easier to forgive many faults than that pre-eminence. What a life it was ! Enjoying

the most that London and Paris could give him ; deep in a classic and loth to be called

away ; moving the House of Commons, or a mob, as no one else could move them,

and going back to Brooks's to keep the bank at Faro ; contentedly potting partridges

or losing thousands at Newmarket " Charles," writes Hare to Carlisle in December,

1781, "in the October

Meeting lost about

,£10,000, the greatest

part of it in Races and

the rest to General

Smith at Picquet." Most

of it was unwise, but

"damme! it was life"

indeed. Much of it was

inevitable in a period

when people entered

politics not because they

were rich, but because

they wanted to become

so. The men who were

spurred forward by far

sharper incentives and temptations than are ours, are entitled to a far higher credit

when they held a straight course than any we can possibly deserve. And whatever

else may be said of Charles Fox, it could never be said that he broke up any

man's home or ruined any woman. His immense popularity among the men,

and the delightful terms of equal friendship on which he stood with such

women as the Duchess of Devonshire would, otherwise, have been not merely

unlikely but impossible. " I am a bad hater," he would say, and his sympathy

did not stop with the fortunate or the great. His heart and his intelligence were

large enough for every phase of humanity. Burns, who understood him as well

as he liked Burns, wrote of him : —

VOL. II. K K

The Kt. Hon. C. J. Fox's
" Pyrrhus." (1767.)

242

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

in wi

" Thou first of our orators, first of our wits,
Yet whose parts and acquirements seem mere lucky hits,
With knowledge so vast and with judgment so strong
No man with the half of 'em e'er went far wrong ;
With passions so potent and fancies so bright
No man with the half of 'em e'er went quite right."

Fox went to Newmarket with as great a zeal as he went everywhere. " When
his horse ran he was all eagerness and anxiety. He placed himself where the animal
was to make a push, or where the race was to be most strongly contested. From
this spot he eyed the horses advancing with the most immovable look ; he breathed
quicker as they accelerated their pace ; and when they came opposite to him he rode
vith them at full speed, whipping, spurring, and blowing, as if he would have

infused his whole soul
into his favourite
racer. But when the
race was over, whether
he won or lost seemed
to be a matter of per-
fect indifference to
him, and he immedi-
ately directed his con-
versation to the next
race, whether he had
a horse to run or not."
He was, of course, a
member of the Jockey
Club, and with another member, Lord Foley, he owned Pyrrhns and Trentham,
both fine horses. Pyrrhns (1767) was a brown son of Sprightly out of
a daughter of Snip, won 10,400 guineas in stakes and matches, and was
the best of his year. His most famous match was against Mambrino
(5 years) at Newmarket First Spring Meeting, 1774, 8st, B. C. (cross and jostle),
for two thousand guineas, which he won by half a neck after his rider had " jockied
the rider of Mambrino and drove him a considerable way out of the course," within
half a distance of the finish. Trentham (1766) was a bay son of Lord Gower's
Sweepstakes out of Miss Sot////, and won two Jockey Club Plates. With Pyrrhns in
1773 he was engaged in a match by the terms of which both horses were backed to

Mr. Charles Ogilby's "Trentham.'"

s <?

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 243

beat Pincher, and they did. There is a passage in the " Chatsworth Correspon-
dence" which has sometimes been misunderstood. It runs as follows :— " Mr. Fox
returned this morning. He travelled all night and yet won one or two races, which
considering his not having been abed, and his size, is doing a great deal." This
must, of course, refer to his habit, which was common to many others in those days,
of riding in with his horse from the distance, as has just been described ; for
neither Pyrrhus nor Tretitham, good as they were, could have carried over sixteen
stone.

Fox used to complain sometimes, good-naturedly enough, that his horses were fast
enough, but never cared to tire themselves. If he ever rode them himself such
prudence would be

perfectly intelligible, ^g—jjimgm

but even his un-
wearied efforts to
reduce his weight
stopped short of that.
Even with thirty
animals in training,
some of whom, as
we have seen, were
well in the first flight,
he could not manage
to succeed in making
both ends meet; and
though he once netted
sixteen thousand pounds by betting against the favourite in 1772, the net
result of his racing — which was invariably as honest as himself — may be
easily judged from the ruin which befell his no less honourable and
beloved partner. Lord Foley, for it was with him that Fox ran his training
stable, began his career with ,£ 20,000 a year and .£100,000 in ready money.
He had lost both, and his health as well, before he left the Turf, and he died at fifty-
one. Prince, father of a trainer well known in the next generation, trained for him
and Fox ; South and Chifney were their jockeys ; and " Nimrod " has put it on
record that distemper in their stables was the final ruin of their stud. But these
things did not trouble Fox for long. In the year I have just mentioned, 17/2, even

Mr. Thomas Foley' s " Firetuil"

244

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

the luxuriously fashionable recluse, Horace Walpole, was tempted from Strawberry
Hill, where he was usually wise enough to find his happiness complete, into those
ancient haunts at Westminster of which he could have told us so much had he cared
to frequent them. On that 7th of April he wrote, " the fame of Charles Fox raised
my curiosity and I went this day to hear him." What that fame was, entirely apart
from the racecourse, may be gathered from those venomous caricatures by Gilray of
which I have inserted one or two to complete the picture of the most versatile

Turfite the world has ever seen.

.__ — | " Fox," continues Walpole, " made his

motion for leave to bring in a Bill to

correct the old Marriage Bill

Burke made a fine and long oration
against the motion. . . . Charles
Fox, who had been running about the
house talking to different persons and
scarce listening to Burke, rose with
amazing spirit and memory ; answered
both Lord North and Burke ; ridiculed
the arguments of the former and con-
futed those of the latter

Burke was indefatigable, learned, and
versed in every branch of eloquence.
Fox was dissipated, idle beyond
measure. He was that very morning
returned from Newmarket, where he
had lost some thousand pounds the
preceding day. He had stopped at
Hockerel, where he found company ; had sat up drinking all night ; and
had not been in bed when he came to move his Bill, which he had not even drawn
up. This was genius — almost inspiration. The House dividing, Lord North was
beaten by sixty-two to sixty-one ; a disgraceful event for a Prime Minister."
When men who could do things like this were on the Turf, it is not surprising
to find that Racing benefited as much from their presence as did every other form of
human activity in which they took so fiery an interest, and before giving a few more
examples of the astonishing characters who formed the Turf Society of Eighteenth-

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 245

century England, I must turn to the most important event in the History of Racing
with which their names are connected.

It is about the year 1750 (according to Mr. Robert Black, to whose valuable
researches in this direction I am much indebted) that the first traces of the Jockey
Club can be discovered. It was hardly likely that such important clubs as White's
or Brooks's would have long been without their counterpart in more active spheres
of life than that which was to be enjoyed in the neighbourhood of St. James's.
When the racing men who met each other at White's went down to Newmarket to
match each other's horses it was but natural that they should soon use the advantage
of a bond of union — and even of self-defence — in the country, very similar to that
which gave them so many pleasant social privileges in town. Whether the one
form of association was slightly anterior to the other or not is no great matter, for the
spirit which produced both was evidently similar, and the necessity for some kind of
combination among owners on the Turf was even more apparent than the need for a
good private gambling-room in London. Newmarket and its surroundings were far
more open to the casual and burly blackguard than was any respectable residence
close to Piccadilly ; and even in those happy times before the growth of millionaires
became a common incident, it may have been found advisable to erect one more
barrier, which money alone would not be able to surmount. The very indifference
of the reigning monarchs who succeeded Queen Anne was, with those who
remembered earlier years, an additional incentive to provide themselves and their
legitimate proceedings with a sanction and a tone which had previously been cheer-
fully given by the sympathy of the Throne itself.

Sir John Carleton's exercise, of the Royal authority, delegated to him to warn off
undesirable persons from " those places which the King reserves for his own sport,"
may very possibly have suggested to a few of the noblemen and gentlemen most
interested in Newmarket, that if their present Sovereign was not disposed to safe-
guard the surroundings of their racecourse, they had better find some method of
doing so without him. The materials were of course easily discoverable for such an
association as may have occurred to them. And the traditions of that racecourse
itself were more than sufficient to provide them with a solid foundation for the
future ; for, as we have so often seen in glancing at the Court of Charles II., in the
days when the King owned and rode his own horses, and when both the Duke of
Monmouth and the Duke of York did the same, there must obviously have been some
kind of an organisation to provide jockeys fit to ride against such illustrious owners,

246

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

and to keep the course clear of all dangerous or unwelcome intruders. As a matter
of fact the Record Office reveals that the State Papers of the Restoration have
almost as much of racing in them as of more serious business, and when the details
of a sport are being carefully catalogued among the national archives, it is not a
very difficult matter for its votaries to quote authority and precedent if they desire
to do so. Whether the foundation of the Club really reflects that early necessity
for providing presentable jockeys in a Royal race, I cannot say, though a large
number of its members were certainly fond of riding their own horses in a race, and

did it well, too, among them being
such famous gentlemen jockeys
as the Dukes of Hamilton and
Oueensberry, Sir Nathaniel Cur-
zon of Kedleston, Lord Wilton,
Mr. Henry Compton, the Duke of
Grafton, Mr. Vernon, Mr, Shelley,
Lord Orford, Messrs. Jenison and
Robert Shafto, Mr. Duncombe,
Mr. Shirley, Sir Henry Fether-
stonhaugh, Mr. Brand, and others.
It is clear, at any rate, that in
Royal racing the Club found at
once its origin and its justification.
The two Dukes of Cumberland,
uncle and brother of George III.,
were among its earliest members,
and it has never been without a
member of the Royal Family upon
its roll from that day to this.

At first the Club seems to have held its official meetings at the Star and Garter in
Pall Mall, where it is also recorded, by a most interesting coincidence, that " the laws
of cricket were revised, on February 25th, 1774, by a committee of noblemen and
gentlemen." But other hostelries as well were favoured, and members also met in
each other's houses, until later on Mr. Richard Tattersall provided them with a cook
and a private coffee-room at Hyde Park Corner, and Messrs. Weatherby's room in
Old Burlington Street became the recognised headquarters fur London. The

A Jockey on the Throne.

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 247

familiarity of these names to-day is one of the strongest testimonials to the enduring
excellence both of the Club and of the Turf in whose interests it was formed.

No doubt one of the greatest influences wielded by the young Club was the pub-
lication of the "Racing Calendar" by James Weatherby, their devoted adherent,
keeper of the Match Book at Newmarket. The edition for 1779 is before me as I
write (vol. vii.), printed by H. Reynell at 21, Piccadilly, and " containing an account
of the Plates, Matches, and Sweepstakes run for in Great Britain and Ireland in the
year 17/9, together with an abstract of all the Matches, Sweepstakes, &c., now
made, to be run at Newmarket from the Craven Meeting 1780 to the year 1785,
and of several matches, &c., made for York, Bath, and many other places." Among
its advertisements is a note that " complete sets of Heber's Books, with several odd
volumes of Cheney's," both predecessors of James Weatherby in his important publi-
cation, were to be had at n, Hamilton Street, Piccadilly, where also was to be
bought the " Sporting Calendar" for 1772, published by Messrs. Tuting and Faw-
coner, " both since deceased." The book contains many interesting items long since
pressed out by increasing demands of space, such as a list of subscribers, the form of
affidavit to prove the qualification of a hunter, the " articles for a cock match," and
proper rules for fighting, with a few details of past encounters, concluding with such
alluring advertisements as, " Goulard's Original Extract of Saturn," " Mrs. Tur-
meare's Horse Medicines," " Mr. Wareham's Greyhound Slips," and many other
items of interest.

At Newmarket the Club in its first years did not possess an inch of ground, for
the importance of ownership of the Heath had not, of course, developed. But they were
able to lease a private " Coffee-Room" as early as 1752 from Mr. Erratt, and before
their lease was up, Mr. Vernon, a member, bought it and sold shares to other
members. He extended the buildings, and when his lease expired the freehold of
the " Coffee- Room," the "New Rooms," and their adjuncts was bought outright
from the Erratts and conveyed in trust for the Club to three members, Lord
Lowther, the Duke of Richmond, and the Earl of Verulam, probably the stewards in
1831. But this transaction only affected the comfort and shelter of members. Far
more important were the acquisitions of the land forming the actual racecourse at
Newmarket, made in 1798, 1807, 1808, 1819. This was still insufficient; and
either by lease or freehold the Club subsequently got possession of Bury Hill, Warren
Hill, the Limekilns, and other stretches of ground in the vicinity of Newmarket, a
series of purchases which enabled them as early as 1827 to give legal effect to their

248 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

" warning-off " by winning an action for trespass against the man to whose presence
they objected in the case of the Duke of Portland v. Hawkins.

The earliest public mention of the new association is to be found in Mr. John
Pond's " Sporting Kalendar," which announces, " A Contribution Free Plate, by
horses the property of the noblemen and gentlemen belonging to the Jockey Club,"
for the ist of April, 1752, an announcement which evidently pre-supposes the famili-
arity of the organisation to Mr. Pond's readers ; and by the May Meeting of 1753
we find no less than two " Jockey Club Plates," not only announced, but regularly run
for, which were reproduced at Newmarket at the Second Spring Meeting for many
years. But it is not alone by a mere record of the racing of its members that the
value of the Club in these early years can be properly appreciated. The list of
members which these races reveal between 1753 and 1773, the year when Messrs.
Weatherby's first Calendar was published, is a strong indication that the objects they
suggested as probable for its founders were being rapidly attained. These objects
were, it may be suspected, rather negative than positive in their nature. They aimed
at exclusion rather than reformation, at amusement with safety rather than at
authoritative legislation. It was convenient to be able to bet with a considerable
number of people, all of whom were in a recognised position, and able to pay up
when necessary. It must not be imagined fora moment that the Jockey Club, at any
period of its career, posed as a Censor Morum in the matter of betting. Indeed for
almost a hundred years the questions arising out of wagers were those which chiefly
concerned it, and the announcement of 1842 (that " the Jockey Club, and the Stewards
thereof, will henceforth take no cognisance of any dispute or claims in respect of
bets ") is far from implying that the Club ignore bets, for it was necessitated by the
natural desire of members to escape the unpleasantness of constant adjudication in
such matters, or at least only to proceed against defaulters after the painful duty of
initiating inquiries had been undertaken by the Committees of Tattersall's and the
Subscription Rooms at Newmarket. It would have been highly absurd of the
original Club to take any measures of this kind, inasmuch as they began without any
power to enforce their authority whatever, and themselves provided nine-tenths of
the wagers taken and offered on the course. But far larger objects than these soon
appeared as the inevitable corollary of this association of men of wealth and distinc-
tion. Perhaps the greatest was that bond of union now made possible, with the
breeding of bloodstock as its strongest link, between the racing men of the North
and of the South ; and the second was like unto it. For the proceedings of a rich

°r T>

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 349

and influential body of men, whose chief ostensible desires were the improvement of
the thoroughbred and the encouragement of racing, could not but exercise a gradual
but lasting effect upon both these important factors in the successful progress of the
English Turf, at a time when England was ripe for some such crystallisation of the
spasmodic efforts towards .sport that were so numerous in every part of the country.
By degrees, as was but natural, their actions became precedents, their advice grew
into law. When it became necessary later on to have some really legal foundation
for the authority which had without question become theirs, it was no difficult

" Prospero" by "Merlin."
(A light chestnut horse ; the jockey wears
green jacket and black cap ; the groom
in yellow.)

task to provide it. But the position of the Jockey Club owes its true strength far
more to the traditions which have grown round it ever since 1753, than to any
material or even legal sources. The rapidity with which the Club acquired a position
which secured a sufficiently general respect for its own rulings, may be seen from
those resolutions of its first twenty years, which were either definitely promulgated
over signatures of members, or generally quoted as guiding precedents. The first
occurs when the Club recognised that the scarcity of horses which had suggested
three or four heats in a single race had now disappeared, and very properly agreed, in

VOL. II. L L

250 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

consequence, to decide their races in a single heat, a decision which was not copied
by the Master of the Horse for the Queen's Plates until 1861. Dead heats were a
natural exception to this. In the same year (1756) their ruling with regard to placed
horses was taken as a precedent elsewhere, and quoted thirty years afterwards. In
1758 they allowed two pounds over weight, and " disqualified " riders who failed to
declare that they were over weight. In 1759 their " Weights and Scales Plate " of 100
guineas (raised from the weighing fees they imposed) was thrown open to the public ;
in both directions a very important event, especially at a period so soon after the
Club's foundation. In 1762 members agreed on certain colours, instead of the
haphazard dress hitherto in vogue, a decision which was repeated in 1770. In 1768
their Challenge Cup was founded, which in 1862 had twenty-five subscribers. In
1769 entries were ordered to be made to the keeper of the Match Book ; and by the
next year the Club is evidently feeling strong enough to promulgate quite a number
of important resolutions, affecting outsiders as well as themselves. These had to do
with a dinner on the King's birthday ; the election of stewards ; watching trials ;
fraudulent bets ; certificates of the age of horses entered ; and the punishment of
"grooms." In 1770, when Sir Charles Bunbury, Lord Bolingbroke, and Mr. Jenison
Shafto were stewards, they officially sanctioned two-year-old racing. The far graver
error of yearling races (which were actually not prohibited until 1876) was not made
until 1786. In 1771, to complete this catalogue of early legislation, the stewards
were given power to settle disputes, with " two referees to be chosen by the parties
concerned" ; and " the highest weight" was fixed at 8st. 7lbs., which was as great a
change from the old conditions as the abolition of heats, and was no doubt the
beginning of that light-weight racing concerning which controversy has not yet
been able to discover the last word.

It will be convenient, and interesting too, to insert here some slight account of
the public legislation passed by Parliament (as opposed to the quasi-private edicts
of the Jockey Club just mentioned) in so far as it affected racing and gambling, from
the point where I last mentioned it ; for after the fatalities which attended the colossal
speculations in the early eighteenth century we may well expect that certain
traces of the gambling outbreak should have been left upon the laws of
England. Charles II. had been careful to pass an Act "to restrain deceitful,
disorderly, and excessive gaming," which contains the first official mention of Horse-
Racing in the Statute-Book ; and it was subsequently held that this important edict
prohibited horse races for more than £10 a side, which only shows that certain

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX

251

enactments are obviously made to be eluded. In 1699 William III. took somewhat
similar precautions by imposing a fine of /5oo on anyone who kept a lottery, and
apparently with very similar results, for the preamble of the Act against gambling
passed by Queen Anne shows that previous legislation had been found to be utterly
inadequate, and declares that all mortgages and securities connected with gaming or
betting were if so facto void. A further edict endeavoured to limit betting to/io, as
we saw when discussing the effects of Mr. Frampton's famous match with Sir
William Strickland, though Her Majesty's Palaces were thoughtfully and specifi-
cally excepted from the operation of this law during her residence. George I.
does not seem to have visited Newmarket much more than the one time
recorded in October, 1717 ;
and the only Act in his reign
that relates to horses forbids
waggoners and carriers and
others from drawing any
vehicle " with more than four
horses in length." The Postal
service he left in the same
bad state in which he found
it ; indeed it was not till 1784
that the old untrustworthy
system of boys on horseback
was abolished. If such a
simple reform in these direc-
tions did not occur to

George I., it was not likely that he would trouble about the mistakes in Racing
Legislation made by his predecessors; but soon after George II.'s accession the evil
effect of £IQ Plates had begun to be seriously felt, and in the thirteenth year of his
reign was passed the Act of 1740, which provided that all horses were to be entered
for races by their real owners, and nobody was to start more than one horse for the
same Plate under pain of forfeiting the horse. It was declared illegal to run for a
Plate of less value than ^50, under a penalty of ^"200 to the owner and ^100 to the
advertiser. Every race must begin and end on the same day, the second horse should
recover his stake, and gifts left for annual races were not to be altered. Five-year-
olds must carry 10 stone, a six-year-old 11 stone, a seven-year-old 12 stone, each

Mr. J. Marshal's " Little Driver."1

252 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

under a penalty of / 200. At Newmarket and Black Hambleton alone matches for
less than £50 might be arranged. Naturally this drastic and dogmatic announce-
ment of weights could not last long, and five years later it was declared lawful for
anyone to run for a .£50 Plate at any weights and at any place ; for it was hoped that
the Royal Plates of a hundred guineas each given by His Majesty every year in various
parts of the kingdom would prove a sufficient encouragement to breeders to raise a
horse of speed, strength, and staying powers.

Of course, however, this Act of 1745 had much more far-reaching consequences
than that of merely withdrawing an unpopular measure. It may almost be considered
to have taken the first step towards modern light-weight racing, though the various
stages of development cannot be traced just now. The scale of weights prescribed at
the same time for the Royal Plates was : — 4-year-olds, 10 st. 4 Ib. ; 5 -year-olds, i ist.
6 Ib. ; 6 and aged, 12 st. ; races decided in four-mile heats. But it is evident that the
dead set made by the authorities against small horses did not have very much practical
effect — nor were such wonderful animals as Little Driver, or Highlander (14 hands
i inch, and the best of his size to win a Royal Plate) who was a stallion at Hampton
Court in 1 758, or Gimcrack likely to encourage any popular belief in such ideas — for the
" Give and Take " Plates which were common at the beginning of the eighteenth century
lasted till well into the nineteenth. In these the horses entered carried weight for age
and weight for inches. They were made to stand upon a stone 6 ft. 4 in. long by 3 ft.
3 in. broad, at each end of which were cut deep lines, 2 ft. long and 5 ft. distant
from each other, these last measurements being intended to prevent a horse spreading
his fore or his hind feet out too wide, or extending his forelegs too far from his hind
ones. The usual scale, says Mr. John Orton, Clerk of the Course at York in 1839
(some time after these races had been given up), was that aged horses of " thirteen
hands carried 7 st. and for every additional eighth of an inch an extra 14 oz." Six-
year-olds enjoyed a reduced scale of 4 Ib. less weight, and five-year-olds had 1 2 Ib.
less, but of course the details were entirely at the option of the promoters of the prize.
The Royal Plates numbered 18 in England and Scotland in 1760, and by 1807 there
were 23 ; and no doubt the foundation of the St. Leger, Oaks, and Derby had an
effect upon the old conditions, which were certainly altered in 1773 and 1799. It may
be noted here that in 1785, the second year of Pitt's first administration, he proposed
a tax on every horse which ran for a Plate. Lord Surrey suggested, as an alternative,
^"50 on every winner of a certain sum. Pitt imposed both ; without, however, affecting
the Turf to any noticeable degree.

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 253

There is no doubt that these King's Plates, which I have had to mention so
many times in connection with early breeding and racing, afforded the strongest
argument possible to those who maintain that, if Racing served no other pur-
pose whatsoever, it would invariably improve the general breed of horses, and
this was usually recognised whenever any legislation on the subject was proposed
in the old days. It is certainly true that almost from the very year when these same
Royal Plates lapsed into premiums under a Royal Commission, the object proposed
by that Commission has not been so well attained as in the times before the oppor-
tunities of long-distance Racing were thus diminished. Efforts have been made to
supply the deficit as far as the modern Turf is concerned, and the entries for the
autumn handicaps in 1901 were certainly sufficiently large to encourage the veriest
pessimist ; but it is unfortunately none the less clear that the general horse-supply
throughout the country does not attract the attention of Racing men as it used to
do. In these days of huge training-stables on the one hand, and of multitudinous
small establishments on the other, each of them are as much engaged in running
two-year-olcls off their legs as they are in hoping for success in later handicaps ; and
the consequence is that while foreign countries are slowly but steadily buying up
our best bloodstock, our Colonies and the United Kingdom generally are not
getting that benefit out of thoroughbred sires and mares which is essential. The
useful horse is being elbowed out by the handsome but helpless racer who is
encouraged by a premium. The growing practice of gelding " difficult " horses,
and the apparently undiminished running powers of such animals as Democrat, Epsom
Lad, or O 'Donovan Rossa, are also serious dangers to the increase of the best stock.
We may still have the best racers in the world. But have we got the best hacks,
the best cavalry horses, the best coach-horses, and the best hunters, as was also once
the case ? If not, it may well be argued that we do not deserve to have them if we
neglect the useful horses who produce them. Mr. Hodgman records that his
Victor (who won the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot as a four-year-old) became
one of the best hunting sires ever known in Ireland after he had sold him
for £28 at Tattersall's. If railways and motor cars have lessened the impera-
tive need which the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth century felt fcr
good general stock, our Colonies and our soldiers, at least, have not yet ceased their
continuous demand for serviceable horseflesh ; nor, in spite of countless Jeremiads
in the last twenty years, have our Masters of Hounds all sold or stopped their
Packs. Yet I doubt very much whether we can call upon such good sires for our

.

II

^o

- !^

v

e

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX- 255

hunters nowadays as could Sir Robert Walpole at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, or the Prince Regent at the beginning of the nineteenth ; and the facilities
that were open to both these gentlemen were in large measure owing to the
existence of such King's Plates as those won by Fox and by those of his gallant
contemporaries whom I mentioned in the last volume.

It will complete the record of the early days of the Jockey Club, from which I
have been for a moment diverted by larger considerations, if I add that by 1762
there had been instituted a second October Meeting, and by 1771 the July Meeting,

" Marske " by " Squirt," his dam by
Mr.Hutton's "Blacklegs:'

the Houghton Meeting, and the Craven Meeting were established. All this con-
stitutes a fine record for an association which possessed no authority as yet to enforce
its rulings, and could only appeal to the sympathy of the public with its evident
intentions to improve the sport they all loved. Whether the enormous changes
produced on the Turf by modern progress will necessitate any alteration in the
ancient constitution of the Club, it is too early in these pages yet to discuss.
But it was necessary to mark at once the appearance on the Turf of an insti-
tution which contributed, as much as any one cause can ever have contributed, to the

256 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

success of all we mean by English Racing ; and it may be added that, although that
kind of omission which outside critics describe as "obvious " is to be found at every
stage of the Club's membership, from its inception to the present day, yet nearly all
its early founders were members of one or the other House of Parliament, and owned
between them nearly every thoroughbred whose blood is of importance in the Stud
Book. For if the Byerly Turk and the Darley Arabian were born too early, and if the
owner of the Godolphin Arabian was one of the omissions aforesaid, the members of the
Jockey Club owned at one time or another Matchem, Herod, and Eclipse ; and neither
now nor then can any body of gentlemen who associate together of their own free
will be intelligently criticised — it seems to me — for refusing to enlarge their
boundaries at the will of other people.

The owner of Marske, when he won the Jockey Club Plate at Newmarket
in 1754, was William, Duke of Cumberland, who is thereby proved to have been
one of the first members of the Jockey Club. He was a gallant soldier, a very
loyal uncle to George III., and a staunch supporter of the Rockingham Administra-
tion, who held Cabinet meetings at his house. But he only had time for politics
after 1760, and in the last year of his life (1765) he conducted a series of most
important negotiations, partly at Newmarket. Luckily for the Turf, he threw
himself with characteristic energy into horse-racing. His name is preserved in
that lodge in Windsor Great Park where he lived as Ranger, and which is now
filled with pictures of the racehorses he loved. His memory is almost equally
cherished upon the Berkshire Downs, one of the localities which energetically
disputes with the Isle of Dogs, and the Royal Domain, the honour of being the
birthplace of Eclipse. In a Berkshire Manor House I have seen the old oak
writing-desk, as solid still as its first master was, in which the Duke kept his
racing memoranda. They have long ago followed their writer into dust and ashes,
or I should have a very much more interesting story to tell now. But it is suffi-
ciently established, without their vanished testimony, that His Royal Highness owned
not only Marske but Spiletta, and that in Cypron he was the wise possessor of the dam
of King Herod as well. Such names as these would be more than enough to give
immortality to any racing man, for they imply that he was, if not the largest, at any
rate the most successful breeder of his time, and they deserve more careful investiga-
tion in another chapter. But they far from exhausted the triumphs of Cumberland
Lodge, which it is pleasant to see to-day so full of memories of the racehorses
the Duke loved. Among the best of his stable were Dumplin and Dapper by Cade,

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX.

257

Dorimond by Dormouse, Star, Cato, and his brother by Regulus, Miss Windsor and
Miss Cranbourn by Godolphin, Milksop by Crab, and many more ; and the stud was
continued with the happiest results (in spite of the sale of Eclipse to an astute meat
salesman) by his nephew and successor, who bred Don Carlos by Sulphur, Firetail
by Eclipse, Juniper by Snap, Nosegay by Justice, Pomona by Herod, and many other
winners. Two matches stand out especially in the Duke of Cumberland's career.
In the first, Marske was beaten by Lord Sandwich's Snap in 1756, as was mentioned
in my last volume, and in the second, King Herod was matched against the Duke of

-' Snap" (1750).

Grafton's Antinous by Blank over the Beacon Course for _£i,ooo a side, with side-
bets to the value of at least ^"100,000. It was the year 1764, already to be famous
(though the Duke did not realise it) for the birth of Eclipse, and the Fortune which
had thus begun to smile was not niggardly in her favours, for the Duke won with
King Herod by the narrow margin of half a neck. It is to him that we are primarily
indebted for Ascot Races, the site of which he chose. It has retained its Royal
epithet ever since, and remained one of the most fashionable meetings of the racing
year. He was only forty- four when he died, being unable to subdue the effects of
that corpulence which so impressed George III. with the need of walking exercise

VOL. II. M M

258

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

both for his own Royal person and for his courtiers. Horace Walpole once saw him
playing at cards, and records his " resemblance to the prodigal son and the fatted
calf in one." The benefits he conferred upon the Turf are, however, beyond the
reach of any sneer. His efforts to improve racing, said a contemporary admirer, just
after his death, were not effected " without an immensity of expense and an incredi-
ble succession of losses to the sharks, Greeks and blacklegs of that time, by whom
his Royal Highness was surrounded and of course incessantly pillaged. Having
however, in the greatness of his mind, the military maxim of ' persevere and
conquer,' he was not deterred from the object of his pursuit, till, having just become

possessed of the best stock, best blood,
and most numerous stud in the kingdom,
beating his opponents at all points, he
suddenly passed to that bourne from
whence no traveller returns, an irreparable
loss to the Turf, and universally lamented
by the kingdom at large."

Three other breeders, Lord Clermont,
Lord Egremont, and Lord Grosvenor
deserve mention at the same time as the
Duke of Cumberland. Of Lord Gros-
venor I have already spoken, and of his
horses I shall have more to say later.
Lord Egremont was always believed by
Horace Walpole to have jilted his great-
niece Lady Charlotte Maria Waldegrave,
who became later Duchess of Grafton. At
the time she was "eight and twenty, handsome, and has between twenty and thirty thou-
sand a year," says the indignant Horace. Mrs. Delany thinks that the engagement was
broken off owing to his attachment to Lady Melbourne, and Walpole's only comment
was that in that case he was " a most worthless young fellow," a characterisation which
was far from being merited. His wealth came from Lord Thomond, whose house at
Newmarket I mentioned in the Stuart period, and he more than justified its great
traditions, for before he died in his eighty-sixth year, in 1837, he had bred Golianna,
the gamest racer ever seen, though Waxy beat him ; had won five Derbys with
Assassin, Hannibal, Cardinal Beaufort, Election, and La/>dog, and as many Oaks with

Richard, Earl of Grosvenor.

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 259

Nightshade, Tag, Platina, Ephemera, and Caroline. He also ran Claret for a Jockey
Club Plate in 1787, and with Cricketer and Stumps \\e won the Goodwood Cup of
1825 and 1826, at races which legitimately succeeded to those meetings he had held
in the park at Petworth. He is worthy of special commemoration, not merely because
he recognised in time that marriage was not an institution which could ever recommend
itself to his disposition, nor merely that he died worth nearly double the income he
inherited, after spending almost ,£20,000 a year on charitable institutions, but
for his patronage of art in a sense even more extended than that of the house of
Grosvenor which gave its first real encouragement to the brush of Stubbs. The
Turners and Constables Lord Egremont collected may still be seen at Petworth, and
a small anecdote may be told of him which shows that racing can never corrupt a fine
taste that is inherent. In old age, and being ill, he put up a monument to his Percy
predecessors at Petworth, and inscribed it simply " Mortuis Moriturus." Whatever
Horace Walpole may have thought of him, Lord Egremont was a splendid man, and
one whose devotion to the Turf is a lasting credit to it.

It was the third Duke of Richmond under whose auspices the races given up by
Lord Egremont at Petworth were transferred to Goodwood in 1802, where the sport
that was already known was at once solidified and improved, though of course it is to
Lord George Bentinck in a later day that we owe the meeting so popular at the
present time. The third Duke of Richmond succeeded to his title in 1750, and ran
Bounce for the Jockey Club Plate eleven years afterwards. But the third great breeder
in the trio placed with the Duke of Cumberland was Lord Clermont, a great friend
of the French Royal Family, by one of whom his Cantator was nominated for the
Derby of 1784. His intimacy with the Prince of Wales was equally well-known,
and his Royal Highness once got a great deal of easy credit for kindness to an aged
relative by driving out Lord Clermont on the Heath, who was so carefully wrapped
up that people mistook the gay old peer for Princess Amelia, an error which was as
great in morals as in sex. But whether " the hoary profligate " he is sometimes
described or not, Lord Clermont did much for the Turf when he bred the great
Trumpator. He also owned Conductor and Mark Antony, won the Derby of 1785
with Aimivell, the only classic winner who is a direct descendant of the Alcock
Arabian, won the Oaks the same year with Trifle, and got first and second in the
Oaks of 1792 with Volante by Highflyer, and Trumpetta.

I have mentioned that in 1762 certain members of the Jockey Club announced
the adoption of more or less permanent racing colours. Among them was the

200

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

"straw" of the fourth Duke of Devonshire who succeeded to his title in 1755,
became Master of the Horse, and won the Jockey Club Plates of 1754 and 1759 with
Antelope and Atlas ; an ancestor of his is supposed to have won the first race for the
Newmarket Challenge Whip some thirty years before, but the racing reputation of
the family would have been established by the possession of Flying (or Devonshire)
Childers alone, even if Basto and other famous horses, besides several Devonshire
Arabians, had not belonged to it. Dromo, winner of the Jockey Club Plate of

1773, was the property of the
fifth Duke, husband of the
lovely Georgina, of whom I
have reproduced an almost
unknown portrait by Down-
man. The Gainsborough
painting has, like many other
things of personal and historic
interest, been purchased by
an American. Georgina,
Duchess of Devonshire, whom
Fox loved as much as he
respected, owned Le Beau and
ran him in her own name at
Newmarket in 1786 against
her sister (Lady Duncannon,
afterwards Countess of Bess-
borough) and Lord Clermont.
Her husband's tastes were
more studious than sporting,
but the title has never since
his day been unrepresented in English Racing, and in the Lord President
of the Council of 1902, to whom this second volume is dedicated, the Turf
saw one of its firmest supporters, and the new King found another Delme
Radcliffe to carry on the high traditions of the Prince of Wales's racing stable.

In previous pages I have already had to mention several other racing men who
were without doubt among the founders of the Jockey Club, for they are intimately
connected with that history of English racing which I have endeavoured to trace

Georgina Duchess of
Devonshire.

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 261

before both its proceedings and its records become crystallised by the developments
at which we are now arriving. It will be remembered that on the day of Queen
Anne's death, Her Majesty's horse Star had beaten Merlin, whose owner, then Lord
Chamberlain, was created the first Duke of Ancaster by George I. In 1723 this
nobleman was succeeded by his son Peregrine, owner of the Ancaster Gentleman, the
Ancaster Driver, and other famous horses. The third Duke, who came into the title
in 1742, was an original member of the Jockey Club, and became Master of the
Horse to George III. His second wife was Mary Panton, of a very famous racing
family. His record is preserved in the Stud Book by the name of the Ancaster
Starling ; and his interest in breeding is sufficiently evidenced by his owner-
ship of the Ancaster Egyptian and the Ancaster Bay Arabian. His son, who
volunteered for the fighting in the American colonies, only survived his inheritance
for a year, and with him the title became extinct. It is, however, interesting to note
that in February, 1902, the claims of the Earl of Ancaster (Baron Willoughby de
Eresby) to the office of Lord Great Chamberlain, held by the first Duke, were heard
before the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords. The third Duke of
Ancaster was succeeded, as Master of the Horse, by the Duke of Northumberland,
who, as Sir Hugh Smithson, married Lady Elizabeth Seymour, a daughter of the
sixth Duke of Somerset and Lady Elizabeth Percy. The many " Northumberland "
Arabians imported by the Duke's agent Mr. Phillips, have been already mentioned,
and are a strong evidence of his fitness for membership of a Club which did so much
to encourage horse-breeding. He won a Jockey Club Plate in 1764 with Caesario by
Matchem, and with Narcissus in the next year. The Duke of Ancaster's brother-in-
law, the " polite Tommy Panton " of Newmarket, was, as we have seen, the son of the
Keeper of the King's Running Horses who succeeded the famous Tregonwell
Frampton in that responsible office, and lived till he was eighty-two. This son
enjoyed an even greater longevity, for racing seems to have been a healthy pursuit
in those days, though the fact that his sister was a Duchess, and Mistress of the
Robes, may no doubt have contributed to the comforts, and even increased the
proverbial politeness, of her brother. Mr. Thomas Panton knew his business too,
for he won the Derby of 1 786 with Noble by Highflyer, and it was from the Panton
Arabian that Hollandaise was descended (through Virago) who won the St. Leger of
1778, the first year in which the famous race at Doncaster definitely received
that name.

Scarcely less famous than Tommy Panton was the Hon. Richard Vernon, owner

262

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

of Woodpecker, with whom he won the Craven Stakes three times. He was one of
the earliest members of the Jockey Club, for he won one of its Plates in 1753 at
what must be almost its first appearance at Newmarket. In Holcroft's memoirs
we get some idea of the way in which his bold and extensive operations im-
pressed the untutored onlooker. Unfortunately the dramatist thought he could go
and do likewise, with the result that he lost half his year's wages in a week. It
takes a deal of learning before you can safely " stand ten thousand pounds to
nothing," as he reports Dick Vernon did on a celebrated occasion. The future

By permission of Sir Walter Gilbey.

" Shark " (1771) with Price, his trainer.
By " Marske " out of a " Snap " mare.

playwright also saw the match run in 1759 (B. C. 500 guineas a side) between
Mr. Jenison Shafto's Elephant and Mr. Vernon's Forester, in which Forester savaged
his opponent, and to the excited imagination of the spectator seemed actually
to hold him back by gripping his underjaw. The episode suggests one of those
terrible little coloured drawings by Alken, in which the red nostrils and starting eyes
of a horse making its last effort are portrayed with a greater eye for dramatic effect
than truth. The preservation of Mr. Vernon's name in the purlieus of Bloomsbury
Square recalls the fact that he sat for Tavistock, Bedford, and Okehampton, in the

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX.

26;

Bedford interest, which may possibly account for the fact that he was blackballed for
" Old White's," though ten of the twelve members present assured him " on their
honour (sneers Horace Walpole) that they had put in white balls." In any case he
married the Countess- Dowager of Upper Ossory, and furnished another example of the
healthiness of the Turf by living till he was eighty-five, after winning the Jockey Club
Challenge Cup of 1768, with Marquis (by the Godolphin Arabian], and the Oaks, with
Annette by Eclipse, in 1787. The manuscript still exists of the wager he laid for 300
guineas at Windsor Lodge in June, 1762, with the Duke of Cumberland's Dapper, one
four-mile heat against his own horse, over Harleydon Course, at 8st. 7lb. Another
early member of the Club was Hugo Meynell, whose name is more indissolubly con-
nected with fox-hunting
than with the Turf,
though both probably
had a share in giving
prolonged vitality and
energy to the famous
Master of the Quorn. A
well-known northerner
of the same period was
Sir Thomas Gascoigne,
of Yorkshire, owner of
Magog, which he shared
with Mr. Stapleton, a
fellow-member. This
unlucky horse, who was
considered gigantic from being sixteen hands high, won a Jockey Club Plate,
and furnished the first authentic instance of nobbling, for he was so barbarously
treated before the race for the Gold Cup at Doncaster in 1778, that he was
unable to start, though he recovered later on, and did well at the stud. Sir
Thomas won the St. Leger in 1778, 1779, and 1798, with Hollandaise by Matchem,
Tommy by Wildair, and Symmetry by Delpini, and the Oaks of 1803 with Theophania
by Delpini. The traditions of the family were well kept up by his son-in-law, who
owned Sootlisayer and Jerry. Another famous sportsman from the north was Mr.
William Fenwick, of Bywell, the racing fame of whose family I noticed early in
the Stuart period. He was the lucky owner of Malckem, by whom he cleared

The Duke of Bridgewater's
"Shapeless."

264 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

£17,000 in fees alone, and of Duchess. Through Mr. Fenton, a Yorkshireman,
the blood of Engineer (who lost the Jockey Club Plate of 1763 to Dorimond} was
transmitted through Mambrino and Messenger to the United States, where it formed

& o

the foundation of the greatest family of trotters. Sir John Moore, of Fawley Court,
in Berkshire, is another famous name for all time in the annals of bloodstock, for he
bought King Herod at the Duke of Cumberland's death, and refused 2,000 guineas
for him from the King of Poland. It was from Sir John that Trent ham (a horse
of many owners) was purchased at ten years old by Sir Charles Sedley, who won the
Jockey Club Plate of 1776 with this game horse three years later. The name was
well known at the Court of Charles II., and the family representative in the reign of
George III. was no less before the public, though in a far more creditable light, tor,
without counting the Sedley Grey Arabian, Sir Charles owned many valuable sires
and racers which have only been less prominent in history than they might be,
because Sir Charles Sedley died in 1778, before the classic races had fairly begun.

Another staunch supporter of the Jockey Club was Mr. John Warde, of
Squerries, owner of Habit, Fairplay, and Cleaver, by Warde s Arabian. His son,
" Glorious John," took to the road instead, and became a veritable Jehu with his
mail coach, besides being a Master of Hounds. Sir John Shelley entered his bay-
filly, Everlasting (dam of Skyscraper, who won the Derby in 1789), for the Jockey
Club Plate of 1774. But his son, the fifth baronet, was a far greater Turfite, and
won the Derby with Phantom and with Cedric. More famous, both for his stud and
for his deep knowledge of everything connected with racing, was Mr. Wastell, a
Yorkshireman who had emigrated to Bury St. Edmunds. He bred Conductor,
Aindcrby, and Alfred, all by Matcliem, out of a Snap mare bought from the Duke of
Kingston, and he won the Oaks in 1802 with Scotia by Delpini. As he was one of
the few supporters of the eighteenth-century Turf whom knowledge or good fortune
enabled to make money by it, a certain Mr. Pigott took great pains to blacken his
character, but without much success. This Mr. Pigott came of a family of three
brothers, delicately distinguished as " Shark," " Louse," and " Black" Pigott, though
Mr. Robert Black propounds the appalling hypothesis that these three names were
but variously descriptive of a single personality. If so, it was Charles Pigott who
deserved this unenviable combination of qualities. He began well, as a friend of Fox,
a gentleman-rider against such jockeys as Sir John Cade or Mr. Walker, and the
owner of the famous Shark ; but whether owing to shady conduct, or to the vitriolic
character of his libellous publications, he certainly sold his stud and had to leave the

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX.

265

Jockey Club, which he occupied the remainder of his life in vilifying, until he died in
the Sumpter Prison, where he had been confined for debt. Sir James Lowther,
created Earl of Lonsdale in 1784, was a more attractive figure, though not a very
popular one. He was son of the Governor of the Barbados, and inherited his sporting
instincts from his Lonsdale grandmother, whose family are well known to the
Stud Book through the White-legged Lowther Barb, the Lonsdale Bay Arabian, and
others. He won the Jockey Club Plate of 1757 with Jason, and that of 1763
with Ascham, besides making a
sporting offer to back his Mirza
for ten thousand guineas against
Snap.

The first public document issued
by the Club in 1758 contains the
signature of another racing man
whose name will be familiar to us,
Francis, third Duke of Bridgewater,
who succeeded his brother in 1748.
His father's Ashridge Ball had been
a famous horse in 1717, and he
himself owned a Cullen Arabian
mare, who was the dam of Stripling,
Grasshopper, Glancer, and Spectre.
A portion of his great wealth went
towards the foundation of the canals
and of the treatises with which his
name is still connected ; but he had
no direct heir to whom to pass it on, for his heart — it seems — was never able to
recover from the shock of being refused by the beautiful Miss Gunning. This lovely
Irish lady was evidently fond of racing, for it was to a brother member of the
unlucky Duke that she was first married, and her husband, the sixth Duke of Hamil-
ton, was one of the few gentlemen-jockeys who could ride as well as the notorious
Earl of March. I have no doubt that she was among the company who applauded
" James's" victories both at Newmarket and York.

Another early member, who was half Royal in descent, though not at all by title,
was Augustus Henry Fitzroy, third Duke of Grafton, whose inheritance of Euston

VOL. II. N N

Francis, third Duke
of Bridgewater.

266

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

was foreshadowed in my description of Racing Society at the Restoration. It formed
one of the bitterest weapons in the stinging invective of " Junius" later on. He
succeeded to the title in 1757 when he was twenty-two, and if his morals somewhat
too faithfully reflected the accidents of his origin, he was, at any rate, above reproach
as a racing Prime Minister; for he owned Prunella, Penelope, and Parasol ; he won
the Derby with Tyrant (1802), with Waxy Pope (1809), and Whalebone ( 1 8 1 o), and

the Oaks stands twice to
his credit with' Pelisse in
1804 and Morel {our years
afterwards, just three
years before his death.
" Nimrod " calls him a
keen sportsman and an
excellent judge of racing,
and one of" the few great
winners amongst great
men." His horses were
well and honestly ridden
by South, and the success
of those just named may
chiefly be traced to one
mare, Julia by Blank.
She was bred by Mr.
Panton, and her blood
goes back to Bay Bolton,
the Darley Arabian, the
Byerlcy Turk, and even
the Taffolet Barb. At
seven years old she was
put into the Duke's stud and produced Promise (by Stia/>) who was the dam of Prunella
(by Highflyci\ and of her offspring the Stud Book is more eloquent than any praise.
Another Duke who was famous off the Turf, and often ran on it, was Evelyn Pierre-
point, who became the (last) Duke of Kingston in 1726. He also was a member
of the young and famous Club, and when his stud was sold in 1774, after his death,
Scaramouch by Snap, and Cronie by Careless, were both thought worthy of purchase

Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton
and Brandon, and Duchess of Argyll.

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX.

267

by so astute a person as Colonel O" Kelly, of whom I shall have more to say in
later pages. No particular virtue is recorded of this nobleman, but his name runs
through Walpole's letters on account of his connection with the famous Miss
Chudleigh, at whose expense Horace was fondofmakingjokes — jokes which perhaps
it is best to leave unrepeated. The Duke afterwards married her, and she (who, it
appeared, had formerly married Lord Bristol) was tried for bigamy. His first cousin
was Thomas Brand, who ran Gloivworm (by Eclipse] for a Jockey Club Plate in 1776,
and who, by his marriage with the Hon.
Gertrude Roper, transmitted the blood
of the famous John Hampden of the
seventeenth century to the distin-
guished Speaker of the House of
Commons in the nineteenth. Another
member of his family was a famous
gentleman-jockey who raced with Lord
Hilton, Delme Radcliffe, and other
bloods of the Bibury Meetings ; and his
wife also raced in her own name, as, for
instance, when her bay mare Baccelli
won a match for a hundred guineas at
the first October Meeting of 1 7 76 against
Lady Bam pfylde's Fortuiic-hu/ifer. Gloiv-
worm was bought by the Marquis de
Conflans, and, after winning races at
Fontainebleau, became the sire of
several animals which upheld the
honour of the French Turf in England.

The important resolution signed by members in 1758 also shows the names of
Lord Eglintonand Lord Portmore, whose elder brother, Lord Milsington, was a well-
known racing man, as we have seen already. Lord Portmore won the Great
Subscription of 1751 with Skim by the Bolton Starling, and he bred Mr. Grisewood's
Partner (sire of Gimcrack's dam), and Little Highlander by Victorious. Lord Eglinton
was the tenth Earl, and owned Cripple sire of Gimcrack, and Omar by the Godolphin
Arabian. He is mentioned in those verses on the Jockey Club which Boswell
(Johnson's Boswell) wrote on his visit to Newmarket in 1762.

Evelyn Pierrepoint, Duke
of Kingston.

268 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

" Lord Eglinton who has, you know,
A little dash of whim or so,
Who thro' a thousand scenes will range
To pick up anything that's strange,
By chance a curious cub had got
On Scotia's mountains newly caught . .
. . . Newmarket Meeting being near,
He thought 'twas best to have him there."

The only reference of any kind to horses, which I remember in Boswell's " Life,"
consists in a question he asked " the great Lexicographer" in 1783,35 to what
should be done with "old horses unable to labour," and the omission seems all the

Mr. Jcnison Shafto's " Cardinal Puff"
by " Bahrain."

stranger because Dr. Johnson's friend, Sir John Lade, was in later years a real
member of the Club which Boswell visited.

In speaking of the early races run by members, I should not have omitted the
name of Lord Gower (owner of the Gower Stallion, son of the Godolphin Arabian], who
won the first Jockey Club Plate in 1753 with Beau Clincher a year before his death.
The second Earl ran Clio in the same race unsuccessfully, and was Lord President of
the Council, as another famous owner is to-day. For the Plate of 1754 Lord
Strange's celebrated horse Sportsman competed unsuccessfully. The same owner's
Jenny, Gift, and Kitty were on the Turf about the same time ; and his son was
the twelfth Earl of Derby, who more than lived up to the sporting reputation of his

By permission of Walker &• Boutell.

Charles Watson Wentworth, second Marquis
of Rockingham, oivner of "A!abacu/ia,"
and Prime Minister in 1782.

270

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

ancestors, and handed it on to worthy representatives of the same family in our own
times. The Plate of 1756 was won by the Duke of Ancaster's Spectator, who beat
Whistlejacket, then the property of Sir William Middleton and sold by him in the
year before his death to Lord Rockingham. Sir William represented Northumber-
land in Parliament for almost five-and-thirty years, and owned the dam of the Bartlett's
Childers mare, who was sister to the two True Blues. Two famous horses of his
were Squirrel and Camilla. Another early member, whose connection with politics
was rather by inheritance than by experience, was Sir Robert Walpole's grandson,
the third Earl of Orford, who was the last great country gentleman to keep up the

sport of hawking. In
other directions his
sport was rather too
eccentric to be valuable,
but he at least showed
his acuteness in stud
matters by breeding the
speedy Firetail (by the
Squirrel just mentioned),
and by his ownership of
the Orford Barb Mare,
dam of Spitfire by
Eclipse. In 1757 — to
conclude this little list
of early members -

Sir Charles Turner, of Yorkshire, who was a noted rider to hounds and across
country, ran his Brutus against Lord Rockingham's Remus at Newmarket for 500
guineas, B.C., 8st. 7lbs., giving his lordship 4lbs., and won. The loser is another
conspicuous instance at this time of a racing Prime Minister, for Charles Watson
Wentworth, second Marquess of Rockingham, who signed the Club's first public
document, was the owner of Sampson, and Solon whom he afterwards used as his
charger. In 1768 he won the Whip at Newmarket with Bay Malton, beating Cardinal
Puff easily. But his great claim to the respect of every Turfite is that he won the
first St. Leger Stakes (as far as the conditions of the race were concerned) with
Alabacidia. Two years afterwards he gave its name to the famous Doncaster
contest in 1778 from that of his friend and neighbour, Colonel St. Leger of Park Mill.

The Marquis of Rockingham's " Cato."

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAFS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 271

The Marquis of Rockin^hanf s "•Bay
Malton" (1760) by " Sampson,"
his dam by " Cade."

was

It was very possibly

after this nobleman that

Lord Barrymore's Rock-
ing ham was named who

won the Jockey Club

Plate of 1788, the same

year in which its spirited

young owner (then only

nineteen) had entered

Sir John Lade's Feeno-w,

by Tandem, for the

Derby. He deserves

to be recorded as a

patron of the Turf, for

his devotion was, at

all events, enthusiastic, if not always respectably displayed. Lord Barrymore
known as " Hellgate," his second brother, who succeeded him, being

lame, as " Cripplegate," and another
brother, a clergyman, as " Newgate."
This edifying family — there was a
sister, by the way, Lady Melford,
whom the Prince called " Billings-
gate," in compliment to her vocabulary
— were all more or less on the Turf,
but Hellgate was the best sportsman
and the best fellow. He owned
numerous thoroughbreds which he
often rode himself, but his chief
devotion was apparently to the stage.
He had a theatre of his own at War-
grave, and got up mixed companies
of amateurs and professionals to act,
not unnaturally taking the chief parts
himself. After Delpini, a male opera
General Grosvenor. dancer who often assisted at these

272

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

Mr. Thomas Grosvenor.

this mad Irishman have been, and
to be paralleled without much diffi-
culty from our own time. In the
society he amused, and guided by
such excellent mentors as " Old
Q.," or Charles Fox, the Prince of
Wales went on the Turf, though he
did not stay on it long. I have
seen the manuscript draft of the
Prince's Stakes, which was drawn
up in 1784, and placed in the rooms
of the Jockey Club. " Colts 8 st.
3 Ibs , fillies 8 st. New Flat. To
be run at the first and second
Spring Meetings of 1785, 6 and 7.
Sweepstakes of 200 guineas, half-
forfeit." The list of entries is

performances, was named a famous
racer and sire. It is to his credit
that he produced such good things as
" The Merry Wives " and " Every
Man in his Humour." Selwyn writes
rather testily of " that tt^urdi Lord
Barrymore . . . playing the fool
in three or four different characters."
He used to go about with a train of
pugilists, and in one way and another
ran through ,£300,000 and encum-
bered the family estates. He was
killed in rather an odd way by the
explosion of a gun while he was con-
ducting some French prisoners from
Rye to Deal, in his capacity as an
officer in the Militia. Not an un-
attractive figure, on the whole, must

Viscount Belgrave.

THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX.

headed by " George P. (3)," and after him are written Bolton, Earl of
Abingdon (3), Foley (i), Thos. Bullock (2), Tho. Douglas (i), Grosvenor (3),
Chartris (2), Wm. Davis (i). Derby (2), D. O'Kelly (3), Sherborne (3),
Boringdon (i), M. Lade (i), Tho. Panton (3), T. Charles Bunbury (i),
Grafton (i), F. Dawson (i), Clermont (2), Egremont (3), Charles Wyndham (2).
It is a good epitome of the racing men of the period, and the renewal of
the stakes in 1789 shows Lord Grosvenor's name again, with that of
Lord Belgrave, who signed for Sir L. Haggerston. The same family sent
General Grosvenor and Mr. Thomas
Grosvenor to support the Turf as well.
On the second list appear the additional
names of C. J. Fox, G. W. Cavendish,
Rd. Vernon, Barrymore, and Bedford.
It is not possible here to enter upon
so complicated a subject as the demerits
of " George P." But it is only fair to
say that when he first went racing, he
was nothing worse than a foolish (though
by no means stupid) young man ; reck-
less, high-spirited, already selfish, and
a little shifty, but still capable of generous
acts, anxious to be popular and keen to
do everything. He had been hardly
brought up, and he was eager to enjoy
himself, self-consciously but not un-
worthily ambitious to be a universal
patron. The Turf has had more sinister
figures on it than this one.

From such slight sketches of character as the above, the reader, helped out by
his own imagination, may reconstruct in some measure the atmosphere of the Turf
and the sort of society which supported it in the eighteenth century. Then, as now,
there was a small racing set, and a large set which took racing as one of
many enjoyments or functions. The difference is that of these men a goodly pro-
portion threw themselves, like " Old O." or Lord Barrymore, with greater energy and
publicity into the life of pleasure than anyone can do now. The tone was louder,
VOL. n. o o

Tli* Seventh Earl of Barrym^re
tallting'to a friend (1/91).

274

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

the colours were brighter. It was also a more friendly society because it was closer
connected and more intimately acquainted than now. But the spirit was the same.
Some men went because they loved horses and a fine sport ; others because they
hoped to win money ; others because it was a cheerful occasion of talk and laughter
on a fine day out of doors ; others because Lady Sarah flirted at Newmarket. They
made more noise, it is probable, and cut a gayer dash. But the great, joyous, good-
humoured, open-air spirit of the Turf was the same we know to-day

In the next chapter we shall look a little more closely at the horses in which
these men and women were so interested.

Preparing to stert in iSog

CHAPTER XI.

MATCHEM, HEROD, AND THEIR DESCENDANTS. — RECORDS AND COMPARISONS.

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona.

T N the year after Eclipse was foaled, Regulus, the undefeated bay son of the
-*- Godolphin Arabian, followed his famous sire, and died at Low Garterly at the ripe
age of twenty-six. Before that the Cullen Arabian had paid the debt of nature, too,
and the Turf had lost for ever the services of such famous stallions as Babraham,
Dormouse, Snip, Bolton Star/ing, Cade, Crab, Partner, and Flying Ckilders, who was
buried at Chatsworth, where Basto had been laid before him, in 1741. In 1764
Little Prince was still alive at twenty-one, Snap was only fourteen, Marske had
another fifteen years to live, and Herod sixteen. Matchem, the longest-lived of them
all, was then sixteen years old, and was not to die till he had reached the great age
of thirty-three. Bay Malton was a four-year old and Goldfinder was a foal. The
period, in fact, was as critical in the story of the thoroughbred horse as it was
interesting and brilliant in the development of society. I have indicated something
of the latter, and it is time that I should show the importance of the former, both in
relation to the early breeders we met in my first chapters and in connection with the
present condition of things on the Turf at the beginning of the twentieth century.

It is of very little consequence what the aboriginal horse was which Csesar's
legions found drawn up against them as the first Yeomanry of Kent. Whether
the creature was brought here by Celts or Germans as a purely northern product
or as an offshoot of that mixed breeding which undoubtedly resulted from Hannibal's
incursions into Spain and Gaul and Italy, and from other great migrations, it is
certain that the men who invaded this country under the banner of the White
Horse attached a certain value to the animal beyond that of the mere " totem."
The victories of their descendants in later centuries were celebrated by the
carving of the horse in an uncouth and conventional form upon such green
expanses as the Berkshire Downs, near Wantage, and elsewhere ; and we have seen

276 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

that Englishmen soon discovered the admirable sport of racing. In the reign of
Edward II. John Gyfford and William Twety had already written two treatises in
rhyme on hunting and horses, which still remain in manuscript in the Cottonian
Collection. It was not till almost exactly a hundred years afterwards that the first
sporting publication ever issued in England was printed in 1481 for Dame Julyana
Berners, the predecessor of a long line of lusty followers who have been, most of
them, quite unconscious that a petticoat had led the way. This lady insists that a
horse should have fifteen "properties," or points, to wit :—

" Of a man, bolde, prowde, and hardy ;

Of a woman, fayrbrested, fayr of heere, and easy to leape upon ;
Of a foxe, a fayr taylle, short eeres, with a good trotte ;
Of a haare, a grete eye, a dry hede, and well runnynge ;
Of an asse, a bygge chyn, a flatte legge, and a good hoof."

This means, at least, that the clumsy creature we see in English drawings of a date
before the middle of the sixteenth century was probably not quite so useless for a
turn of speed as his unwieldy proportions might suggest.

Clearly, also, the possession of staying-power had soon become a boasted attribute
of our horses. Perhaps there is not much authenticity of detail in the first long-
distance ride that seems to have attracted definite attention ; but it was certainly his
speed in carrying an important message from Richmond to the Emperor, involving a
journey across the Channel, which brought the energy of Thomas Wolsey to the
notice of his Sovereign. In 1599 Sir Robert Carey, whose pedestrian feats had
already won him a handsome wager, rode from London to Edinburgh — about four
hundred miles of bad roads — in sixty hours, in spite of a heavy fall, and got to
Doncaster the first night after doing 162 miles. His hurry was caused by the some-
what indelicate ambition to be the first to bring the news of Queen Elizabeth's death
to James I., and, of course, he must have changed horses on the way many times.
In the reign of the new King his son, the promising and unfortunate Henry, Prince
of Wales, rode from Richmond to Sir Oliver Cromwell's property near Huntingdon
(which I have already had to mention) " before noon" on the same day, a distance
of some sixty miles ; and he did forty miles more the next day. In 1604 a perform-
ance by one of the King's grooms, called John Lepton, is recorded in Fuller's
" Worthies." Within five days he rode the full distance between London and York
five times, and, finishing his task in the Northern town on a Friday, he rode back
on the following Monday and appeared next day at the Court in Greenwich "in as

"MATCHEM," " HEROD:' AND THEIR DESCENDANTS

277

fresh and cheerful a manner as when he first began," being no doubt much
encouraged by winning the wagers which must have depended on so good a per-
formance. In 1619 Bernard Calvert of Andover is said to have ridden from South-
wark to Dover, sailed across the Channel to Calais and back, and ridden home
again to St. George's Church, in seventeen hours. He probably made a fair crossing
with a favourable wind, as it was the month of July ; but again, there is no record of
the number of horses he used, and I have only quoted these instances to show that
though men only had their horses to depend upon, they could make very good

" Protector.'1''

travelling, when pressed, and were able to rely upon the good qualities c-f their
animal. Such facts as these are also worth remembering in any estimate of that
native British stock which existed here before the arrival of the great Eastern sires in
the seventeenth century began that long and baffling process which has resulted
in what we call the " thoroughbred." I have by no means that distinct aversion
to this word which was so roundly displayed in Captain Upton's interesting
publication of some thirty years ago, for it seems as convenient to recognise the
word now generally applied to the ideal every breeder aims at as it is to accept the

278

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

equally faulty, but none the less widespread, phrase of " Gothic architecture " when
applied to buildings of a certain kind. Nor am I quite clear that it would mend
matters at all, even if it were remotely possible, to limit " thoroughbred " to pure
Arabians, such as Mr. Wilfrid Blunt patriotically imports. For I fear I have
already betrayed an opinion which was meant to be reserved for a judicial peroration
to the effect that the best horse ever bred, bar none, was the result of the cross
between the pure Arab and whatever definition may be given to the breed of horse
existing in England towards the end of the seventeenth century. This opinion
ought to have as a logical result the coining of an entirely unknown phrase for
every animal on the Turf during two centuries, a task which very much more

experienced phrase-
mongers would not un-
naturally refuse. Let
it be granted then to
my modesty, if to no-
thing else, that in
future pages the word
"thoroughbred" will
be used in the sense in
which every racing man
now uses it, the sense
which began to be dis-
tinct about the time
when " half-breds " were
called " cocktails," and
were allowed special consideration if they competed against rivals of a better
pedigree.

In gathering together, as far as is possible in these pages, the names of
both the horses and the owners which were famous in the eighteenth century,
I have been guided by two motives especially. Not merely is it necessary to
indicate the gradual progress of racing as such, by the most typical authenticated
facts, but it is also essential to the principle on which I have ventured to place this
work before my readers, that they should clearly understand, as far as surviving facts
can help them, the actual condition of affairs when deliberate breeding from
Eastern stock, whether Arabian, Barb, or Turk, was first continuously fashionable.

Mr. O' Kelly's " Soldier"
by "Eclipse " (17/9).

"MATCHEM," "HEROD" AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.

279

Unless this is clearly grasped, the real meaning of "the English thoroughbred"
will, to my mind, never be truly appreciated. It is possible that one or two horses
may have had a successful career on the English Turf which have had not a drop
of other than Eastern blood in their veins. But to say that all of the best pedigrees
of modern blood-stock can be traced back to The Byerly Turk, The Darley Arabian,
and The Godolphin Arabian, is not at all equivalent to proving that the English
thoroughbred is a pure product of Eastern blood alone. As a matter of fact, the
assertion is no more true than it would be true to say that the best Englishmen are
a pure product of nothing but English blood. In these days of extended travel
and easy communication, marriages between different nationalities are common.
Even if this be denied,
it will not be questioned
that Englishmen often
marry American
heiresses ; and, charm-
ing as these wealthy
ladies are, who will be
bold enough to assert
what is the exact pro-
portion which any
nationality can claim in
a descent which has
produced such fascinat-
ing examples of mixed
heredity ? But there is
no need even to take

the analogy of modern society. Long before Burke was heard of, or Debrett was
born, there was an aristocracy in these islands. What was its origin ? Was it pure
Norman, pure Saxon, or pure Dane ? What is our highest family of all ? Is it
Celtic, or Teutonic, or of what unmixed race ? Of none, for it is better than any.
Our most representative families are the result of the happiest blend ever concocted
in Nature's great Laboratory of Race, the composite of various strains known as the
English.

Much the same holds good of the English thoroughbred. I shall never believe
that any name in the modern blood-stock upon the English turf is descended of the

"Phosphorus" by "Eclipse}'

280

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

same pure Eastern strain (whatever that may have been in each case), as the
Byerly Turk, the Darky Arabian, or the Godolphin Arabian, until I have a far more
satisfactory proof than I have yet seen of the purity of those great sires Matchem,
Herod, and Eclipse, through whom the blood of their three Eastern ancestors has
chiefly been transmitted to their modern descendants. Eclipse, I venture to think
(and I take him only as a typical example) was the result of a very fortunate mixture
of Eastern animal, who had been improved by residence in this climate, and the

" Dungannon."1

English animal, who had already reached a very considerable pitch of excellence
before the results of such unions had really been scientifically appreciated. Nothing
is more baffling than breeding, and I can easily believe that if men had begun to
breed a racer on preconceived theories we should never have had the materials to
produce such a magnificent creature as Stockwell, or Persimmon, or a dozen more, at
all. But the old racing men were very justly favoured by the Providence that has
looked fairly well after their interests ever since. They were rewarded for their
pertinacity in racing hard with all the material they had by suddenly discovering that

"MATCHEM," "HEROD," AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.

28l

this material, crossed with the imported Eastern stock, produced something much
finer than either. The supply appeared when the demand had become pressing.
What they already had in endurance they improved in speed, and what was fast was
made to last as well.

It would take away much of the romance of the Turf, and almost all interest in
its history, if breeding were an exact science. Such awkward yet inspiriting facts are
constantly recurring as the sudden appearance of a good one after all hope of fast
foals out of a great mare had been abandoned. These discoveries have by no means

"Martin " by " Cailt," his dam by •' Crab."

been confined to the Tartar mare sold so cheaply to Colonel O'Kelly, which turned
out to be Worth as many thousands, after she was twenty, as she had cost sovereigns
to her clever purchaser. Penelope, who won eighteen races for the Duke of Grafton,
was the dam of Whalebone, Web, Woful and Whisker ; Poca/wntas, a bad roarer and an
indifferent performer on the Turf, became the dam of Stockwcll, Rataplan, and Kmg
Tom, of Ayacanora, Auricula and Auracaria. Out of another mare, who was so
crippled that she could never race, was born a common-looking son who was never
in perfect health and was often lame. Among his victories were the Two Thousand,

VOL. II. P P

282 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

the Derby, and the Leger ; and his name was Gladiateur. On the other hand, how is
it that such sons as St. Galien or Robert the Devil stood alone, or that Thebais was in
a different class to all the rest of the family produced to Hermit by Devotion ? But
such instances are innumerable. If I have mentioned them at all it is to show that
after two hundred years we are not so very much wiser than our ancestors were in
the matter of breeding, and also that the point of view of a breeder in the eighteenth
century was very different to that with which we are but too familiar in 1902.

Though I have taken the date of Eclipse s birth as a typical year round which
to group the facts of breeding dealt with in this chapter, it must not be imagined
that no horse worthy of note made his appearance between the date reached in my
last volume and the year 1764. The portraits of some famous animals, born by 1750,
and already described, are inserted in these pages to assist, as far as may be, in
comparing the various types developed. Of these earlier horses it is, of course,
Matchem, a bay son of Cade, his dam by Partner, who is the most distinguished,
not merely from the honest and successful record of his racing since he was a five-
year-old in 1753, but from the astonishing fact that between 1764 and 1786 he got
354 winners, among them Teetotum (Oaks, 1780) and Hollandaise (St Leger, 1778),
who scored an average of over ^6,569 a year, the highest figure reached being
,£25, 1 1 6 in 1772. It is worth noting that the total amount of money run for in that
year was ^"160,650, and that in 1787 it was only ^94,420, while in 1797 there were
only 593 horses of all ages on the Turf in all. When it is also remembered that
Matchem s fee, as given in my quotation from the Racing Calendar, was 25 guineas
in 1779, and that these sums were won at a elate when the large prizes of the modern
Turf did not exist, his excellence will be better appreciated if compared with the
,£28,567 that brought St. Simon to the top of the list in 1901.

In Matchem occurs the first direct union of Godolphin Arabian blood with that of
the Byerly Turk. The first of his get that started was the Duke of Northumber-
land's Ccesario, winner of the Jockey Club Plate for four-year-olds at Newmarket in
May, 1764. Matchem had more direct Eastern blood in him than either Herod or
Eclipse. Like the Gower Stallion and Spanking Roger, his sire Cade was by the
Godolphin Arabian, but the pedigree of his dam Roxana shows two unknown elements
in the dam of Why Not and the daughter of Spanker ; and Partner s pedigree is
equally obscured by our ignorance of the dam of Makeless and the grandam of
Jigg. However this may be, the result was all right, both for the racer and the sire,
and the stablemen used to say they could tell a Matchem in the dark from the way

'MATCHEM? "HEROD;' AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.

283

he laid his legs to the ground. " Snap for speed and Matchem for truth and day-
light " was the paddock axiom, and Snap, who was born in 1750, was almost the only
sire of that age whose record ran Matchem 's close, for between 1763 and 1781 his aet
secured .£92,200 in prizes, the most distinguished of his produce (as was mentioned
in his " epitaph ") being Goldftnder, Omnium, and many famous mares, such as
Angelica, Snapdragon, and the dams of Pantaloon, Shark, and Alfred.

Matchem' s type was very closely reproduced in Dr. Syntax (first foal of a Bentng-
brough mare), that game little champion of the North, scarcely fifteen hands in height,
with a mouse-coloured coat so remarkably short that his veins stood out like network
after a slight canter. He was the sire of Beeswing, the pride of Northumberland,
scarcely 15-2, with the
sweetest head in the
world. It may be re-
marked that Dr. Syntax
raced till he was ten
years old (winning 32
races), and his famous
daughter raced till she
was nine, and was
hacked in the Park for
a year before being sent
to the stud. By l^otich-
stone, who also ran as an
old horse, she had the
beautiful Nunnykirk and
Ne-wminster , a pair
whose victories for cups over long distances were wonderful. Newminster got the
big and bloodlike Lord Clifdcn, whose most famous son, Hampton, went back to the
smaller strain, and begot Ladas, the most perfect in proportion of them all.

The Conductor line of Matchem blood, famous for Trnmpator (sire of Paynator,
whose son was Dr. Syntax], Sorcerer, and Penelope, sprang from a union between
MatcJiem and a daughter of Snap, the grandson of Flying Childcrs. Through him
the blood of the Darley Arabian appears for the first time in the line. Sorcerers son
was Smolensko, sire of Jerry, whose son was Tomboy, and the small size of the strain
came out again in Tomboys grandson Saucebox, who was only 14-2. Sorcerers strain,

H.R H. The Prince of Wales' s
" Anvil," by "Herod" (1777).

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

improved by a cross of Sir Peter, continued to flourish for long in Comas and his
progeny, three of whom (in his first season) came in first, second, and third for the
St. Leger ; Reveller (out of Rosette], Ranter (out of sister to Rosette), and the
Marshal. Of the rest Grey Momus was the most perfect and Humphrey Clinker the
biggest, who was the sire of Melbourne out of a Cervantes mare.

Turnino- for a moment to Matchem' s influence on female lines of descent, we may
note that the family which traces, through the dams, to Burton's Barb mare, owes
Atalanta to Matchem, and from Atalanta came Whitelock, Don John, Grey Momus,
Margrave, and Sheen, with such representatives in modern times as Enigma, Lady
Yardley, Headlong, and others. In the same way Matchem was also the sire of Miss
West, who was but five removes from the Massey Mare, and from Miss West, in the
female line, came such celebrities as Gladiateur, Fille de I' Air, Reinc, Fra Diavolo,
and Kirkconnel.

I have mentioned these instances of female descent because there is no doubt
that both Matchem and Herod have now been distanced by Eclipse in the struggle for
male supremacy. Mr. W. Allison thinks that Bruce-Lowe's "Figure system"
provides a complete reason for this in the fact that neither Matchem nor Herod
possessed a single strain of the original mares (viz., the dam of the two True Blues,
the Bustler Marc, the Sedbury Royal Marc, the dam of the Brimmer Mare, and the
Oldfield Mare] who form the tap-roots of the five " sire families," while Eclipse
showed strains from three of them, that of the Sedbury Royal Mare occurring on each
side of his pedigree. But I cannot believe that the English Turf has benefited by
the lack of Matckeafs descendants in tail-male just because caprice in the matter of
fashionable sires has almost extinguished a strain which may perhaps be strengthen-
ing itself by the far more lengthy if uncertain process of establishing the female
line. Matchem traces back, on the dam's side, to the Layton Barb Mare, the latest
of whose descendants are Common and Sir Visto (through the Expectation line),
Seabreeze, Rive d'Or, and Sibola, while among its successful stallions are Lamplighter,
Lord of the hies, T/ionnanby, and Goldfinch ; and if it be true that Matchem s
descendants in tail-male are disappearing all over the world, and not in England
only, then it would seem that the excellence of his stock, as long as it lasted, might
be due as much to his great ancestress as to the Godolphin Arabian himself. Certain
it is, at any rate, that the family of the Lay/on Barb Mare comes fifth in the season of
1901, if we arrange the descendants of the original mares in the order indicated by
the value of their winnings ; while the third on that list is the family of the Sedbury

!

"MATCHEM" "HEROD," AND THEIR DESCENDANTS. 285

Royal Mare, to which both the maternal grandsire and the paternal grandam of
Eclipse belong, and the second place in the same list is held by the descendants of
Tregonwell's Natural Barb Mare, of whom three strains occur in the pedigree of
Herod, including his sire Tartar. But of the difficulties of the " Figure system " I
shall have more to say later.

Returning to descendants in tail-male, we find that of the winners of the Derby,
Oaks, St Leger, Two Thousand, and One Thousand, between 1878 and 1897, 'ess
than 6 per cent, can be traced either to Herod or to Matchem, while Eclipse is
actually responsible for 88' i r. At no time was Matchem superior, on this calculation.
The highest point he reaches is 15-27 per cent., between 1798 and 1817, to the 38-88
of ffervd and the 45-69 of Eclipse. Only once is Eclipse anywhere but first, and then
also it is Matchem who is last. For, from 1 778 to 1797 the winners traceable to Herod
are 48-21 per cent., to Eclipse 39*28, and to Matchem 12-5. This looks bad enough ;
but if we consider the statistics of English classic winners from 1878 to 1897, so far
as their dams are concerned, we shall find the following proportion in the male
descent of those dams, viz., Eclipse, 71 per cent. ; Herod, 19; Matchem, 10. These
figures, taken in combination with the first percentages, must, I fear, finally condemn
the future usefulness of Matchem blood, in spite of the fact that Melbourne and Young
Melbourne mares were in their day so good ; the latter especially through their union
with Her/nit ; for it would now be practically extinct in England but for Solon, sire of
Barcaldine and Fhilammon, and some descendants of Nutwith ; though West
Australian in France (through Bagdad and Ruy Bias], Australian Peer at the Anti-
podes, and imported Australian, in the United States, are still preserving the strain
in lands far distant from its origin.

In 1758 was foaled Herod, a bay horse, by Tartar out of Cypron, the grand
daughter of Flying Childers, whose sire was the Darley Arabian. Tartar was grandson
°f J*gS> who was by the Byerly Turk out of a Spanker mare. There is more of " the
unknown quantity " in his pedigree than in those of Matchem or Eclipse. Even if we
accept Clumsy (sire of Fox), we can hardly assert anything about the Sister to Mixbury,
who was Partner's clam ; while as to both Snail and Shield's Galloii'ay Marc we
know absolutely nothing. Nor are things much better if we turn to Cypron's origins,
for Grey Grantham's dam is quite unknown, and so is the breeding of the mare out
of whom he got the Confederate Filly. I cannot help pointing out, in this connection,
that Matchem, the purest in Eastern descent of the three great sires dealt with in this
volume, is also the one whose blood has shown most symptoms of decay ; Herod

286 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

seems to have gone too far in the other direction. He had absorbed, in fact, too
much of the old English stock, and though that hardy blood has preserved his family
in vigour to the present day, it has not enabled it to cope with the absolutely correct
(and probably quite fortuitous) mixture which produced Eclipse. This may be a
merely fantastic explanation of the figures, though it is borne out by the facts ; but
there seems to be no doubt that Herod mares would have their value at the present
day, just as in the times when O'Kelly would have nothing else, if he could help it,
for union with the Eclipse strain, and just as Mr. Tattersall hunted for Marske mares
to cross with Highflyer. A suggestion that deals more with the Eastern blood in each
case has also been made to account for the varying vitality in the strains of Matchem,
Herod, and Eclipse. As the best of these had most of the Darley Arabian in him,
so, it is suggested, does the excellence of the other two bear an exact proportion to
the amount of the Darley Arabian's blood which is mixed with that of the Godolphin
Arabian and the Byerly Turk respectively. On this theory Herod's superiority to
Matchem is accounted for by the Darley Arabian strain he got through the dam of
Blaze.

Herod was bred by the Duke of Cumberland. He was a bay horse, without
white except a very small star, with a level back and high quarter, and deep in the
back ribs. He was bought by Sir John Moore after the Duke's death, after he had
beaten the Duke of Ancaster's Roman by Blank (8st. 7lbs., B.C., 500 guineas) in his
first race at five years old at Newmarket ; Sir John Moore's own son of Tartar out of
Miss Meredith ; Lord Rockingham's Tom Tinker by Sampson (Sst. 7lbs., to Herod's
8st. 1 3lbs., four miles, i.oooguineas) ; and the Duke of Grafton's^4»/'/;;oz/5(8st. 8lbs.,B.C.,
500 guineas, and again giving him gibs., over the same course for twice the money).
Only one defeat is recorded of him before his sale, that of 1765, when he was unable
to give a stone (as well as a year) to Sir James Lowther's Ascham at Newmarket.
But, in Sir John Moore's colours, he was beaten again by Lord Bolingbroke's Turf.
In 1767 he had his revenge on these two latter horses, but could not get his head in
front of Bay Malton for a sweepstake of 500 guineas a side, Sst. 7lbs., over the Beacon
Course, which put a lot of money into the pockets of the Yorkshire visitors. He had
broken a blood vessel in his head in the August of 1/66, and his last race was a
victory over his old opponent Ascham. No doubt his weak fore legs had begun to
tell, and he was sent to the stud soon afterwards. His offspring began to appear in
1771 ; between that date and 1787 they won .£201,250, besides a large amount of claret,
and the Whip (by Anvil) ; the most famous of them were Highflyer, Woodpecker, Anvil,

1

£

«

5

288 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

Calash (dam of Whiskey), Maria (dam of Waxy), Evergreen, Faith, Bordeaux, Tuberose,
Telemachus, and others, besides the dams of Gohanna, jBeningbrough, Coriander,
Dungannon, and Precipitate, with many more.

Herod's blood has chiefly been handed down to us through the lines of Woodpecker
(1775), out of Miss Ramsden by Cade; and of Highflyer (1774), who was out of
Rachel by Blank ; so that both traced back to the Godolphin Arabian as well as the
Bverly Turk, and Woodpecker has some of the third great Eastern sire in him as
well, through Lord Lonsdale's Darley Arabian mare, the great grandam of Miss
Ramsden.

Woodpecker was himself a large coarse horse with wide lop ears, and for some time
Lord Egremont of Petworth inbred him to Herod blood persistently. But it was out
of Misfortune, an unknown daughter of Dux (a son of Matchem} that Woodpecker
produced his greatest hit in Buzzard, the sire (out of the Alexander mare, a grand-
daughter of Eclipse) of Bronze, winner of the Oaks, and of that famous trio, Castrel
(1801), Selim (1802), and Rubens (1805). Castrel was a splendid chestnut of sixteen
hands, and would have had few to beat him on the Turf, but that he was a roarer.
At the stud he got Merlin in 1815, whom Lord Foley bought as a two-year-old for
2,ooo guineas. He broke his leg running with Tiresias and became incurably savage,
though a good racer. He was destroyed at Riddlesworth after savaging and killing
the stud-groom. Far greater as a sire was Castrel 's second son, John Scott's favourite,
Pantaloon, a big chestnut, covered with dark spots, who had his greatest successes out
of Lord Westminster's Phryne by Touchstone, viz., Elthiron (1846), Windhound (1847),
Miserrima (1848), Hobble Noble (184(5), and The Reiver (1850). His son, Sleight of
Hand (1836), was bought at Sir Tatton Syke's sale for sixty guineas, and turned out
to be the fastest Mr. Parr ever trained. His daughter, the bright bay Ghuznce, the
very model of a useful short-legged one, and only half an inch over fifteen hands, was
out of Languish, who also had Herod blood in her through Highflyer ; Ghuznee won
the Oaks in 1841, in the same year that Satirist (a bay brown also by Pantaloon) beat
Coronation for the St. Leger, and Lanercosl for the Gold Vase at Ascot. Through
Windhound the blood of Herod was transmitted, by way of Woodpecker, Buzzard, and
Pantaloon, to Thormanby (Derby, 1860), a chestnut son of the famous bay mare
Alice Hawthorn, whose sire Muley Moloch was a direct male descendant of Eclipse
through King Fergus, and whose dam Rebecca was by Eclipse* s great grandson Tramp,
with the blood of Mandane and PotSos in her as well. It may therefore be fairly
argued that the Darley Arabian has quite as much to say as the Byerly Turk in the

" MATCHEM" "HEROD" AND THEIR DESCENDANTS. 289

matter of the excellence of such Thormanby mares as Rouge Rose, Violet, Feronia,
Sunshine, and Lady Morgan, while the direct male line of the Thormanby blood
seems to have died out, except in the case of his grandson Le Sancy, who was so
valued in France as to be able to command a ^oo guinea fee. He died in 1901, but
left some smart horses behind him.

The chestnut Selim, a magnificent grandson of Woodpecker, was foaled in 1802,
and was given by the Prince to Colonel Leigh at the Royal Sale. He was good at
all distances, and became the sire of the Cesario filly (One Thousand, 1815), Medora
(Oaks, 1814), Azor (Derby, 1817), Turcoman (Two Thousand, 1827), Turquoise
(Oaks, 1828). From a Walton mare (her dam by Diomed, grandson of Mafc/icm)
Selim had a chestnut son called Langar in 1817, who had two chestnut colts out of
Olympia, named Elis (St. Leger, 1836) and Epirus (Derby, 1846), who was the sire of
the celebrated Virago. For Bay Middleton, the great rival of Elis, I must go back to
Selim' s greater son Sultan (1816), a splendid bay with a blaze and four white feet,
who was out of Bacchante, and showed her Eclipse blood, as it was thought at the
time, by his strong resemblance to the Darley Arabian in his deep back ribs, fine
head, and small ears. He lost the Derby by half a neck to Soothsayer's best son,
Tiresias, who seemed born to be the bane of Buzzard's stock. He broke down just
before the St. Leger, and passed eventually into Lord Exeter's stud, where he
became the sire of Beiram, Ishmael, and Jereed ; of Greenmantlc, who won the Oaks
in 1829, one of the famous Burghley mares which made the "narrow blue stripes "
a spectre to trainers for four or five years ; of the brilliant Augustus (out of Augusta
by Woful), who fought sadly in his gallop, but pulled off the Two Thousand of 1830 ;
of Galata (Oaks, 1832), and of Glencoe (1833), the speedy lowbacked chestnut (sire of
Pocahontas the dam of Stockwcll} whom "Tiny Edwards " loved so well, and who
showed the value of the Tramp blood in his dam by winning the Two Thousand
and the Ascot Gold Cup. Glencoe1 s great rival was Plenipotentiary, who met him first
at the Craven Meeting after Glencoe had won the Riddlesworth in a canter, and it was
thought that Robinson would have no difficulty in settling a horse that looked like a
prize bullock if only he made the running hot at first. But unfortunately "Plenipo "
went up as soon as Conolly asked him, and beat " the fastest horse alive" by four
lengths, a lesson he repeated with even greater severity in the Derby when he almost
carried Conolly to the Durdans in sheer delight at winning ; and he was only stopped
in the St. Leger by the " nobblers." His blood was crossed with that of Plenipotentiary
in the still more famous Blair Athol, for Pocahontas by Glencoe was the dam of Stock-

VOL. II. Q Q

290

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

well, and Stockwell was Blair At hoV s sire from a great- grand-daughter of Plenipotentiary.
A similar case of rivals combining in their descendants is seen in Doncaster, who was
by Stockwell out of Marigold by Teddington, and from Doncaster comes the direct line
through Bend Or, Ormonde, Or/ne, and Flying Fox. The same thing occurred in the
case of those mighty opponents Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur; for Galopin traces from
them through his sire Vedette, who was by Voltigeur, and through his implying Duchess,
who was by the Dutchman ; and hence came the St. Simon line, which is the most
renowned of modern times, though it was a very near thing, for Vedette was actually

In the possession of H.R.H. Prince Christian.

" Skyscraper" by " Highflyer."

offered to a well-known Limerick horse-breeder for forty sovereigns in the 'sixties at
Diss. Luckily Victor went to Kilmallock instead, and became one of the best hunter-
sires in Ireland.

Vedettes pedigree is worth consideration from other points as well, especially if it is
considered as the direct progenitor of St. Simon, and so ol Florizel II. and Persimmon.
His dam, Mrs, Ridgivay by Birdcatcher, was of the PotSos line of Eclipse, while
Voltiffcur showed the King Fergus line of the same sire, and there was also the blood
of Dick Andrews and Blacklock in close removes. But this is not all. Vedette shows

" MATCH EM" "HEROD" AND THEIR DESCENDANTS. 291

twenty-one more crosses of Eclipse besides the four already mentioned, seventeen of
Matchem (inclusive of six of the Godolphin from other sources), and no less than
twenty-seven in all of that Herod whose descendants I am now more particularly
considering. It is a pedigree which not only shows how careful breeders used to be
in mixing the three great strains, but also proves the efficacy of their labours in
St. Simon's progeny to-day. But I must turn back at once to the Woodpecker branch
of Herod.

In 1833 — if I may omit other winners for the present— was foaled Sultan's great
son Bay Middleton. This splendid winner of the Two Thousand and Derby of 1836,
was out of Cobweb (One Thousand and Oaks, 1824) who was by Phaniom out of
Filagree, by Soothsayer out of Web by Waxy. Lord Jersey had already bred Middleton,
of much the same blood, a big, rolling horse who preferred a T. Y. C., but won the
Derby after drinking a bucketful of water. After both Web and her daughter Filagree
had each thrown an Epsom winner to Phantom, Cobweb the grand-daughter did
better than either when her clear-winded Arab attributes were mated to the stock of
Sultan. Her son Bay Middleton stood nearly sixteen and a-half hands high, without
white except on three of his coronets, showing plenty of character. In after life he
became more brown than bay, and mottled on his quarters.

At first Bay Middleton rather frightened his grooms. Lord Jersey had to beg Jem
Robinson to come and ride him, which he did for the first time, to the great relief of
Edwards, one morning at Newmarket. The first burst after the martingale was
broken took Jem across the Cambridge turnpike like a gunshot and into the Links.
He did not get very quickly into his stride, and five furlongs was not his best
distance, but whatever race he ran Robinson never heard him blow. His
first victory — unnamed — was in the Riddlesworth Stakes at the Craven Meeting,
which he won as he liked. For the Two Thousand he beat Elis on the post by a
neck at a pace which left all the others a very long way off. His Derby he won
against Gladiator, Venison, and Slane by two lengths, and Elis, his great rival, made up
for his absence on that occasion by winning the St. Leger, from which Bay Middleton
was absent. But the pair of them met for the Grand Duke St. Michael Stakes at the
First October Meeting, and frightened twenty-one horses out of the field, and the
Derby winner won again as some think owing to the extra stoutness he derived from the
greater amount of Darley Arabian blood in him, which gave that wonderful stride
downhill when Elis could not go the pace. " The Druid " has described his head as
"wicked"; but the arch of his neck was exquisite and beautifully set in from the

292 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

withers, and in brisket, thighs and hocks, he was as good as he could be. His
length was exactly equal to three times the length of his head, a matter of proportion
which I shall have to examine more fully when we come to Eclipse. He lies
buried beside his old mate Crucifix, and John and Alfred Day each planted a cedar to
their memory.

Bay Middleton 's offspring were not so good as Sultans, but good enough. The
most distinguished of them was The Flying Dutchman, a fine-looking very dark
brown without white, of whom I reproduced Herring's magnificent painting in my
first volume. He was out of Barbette (by Sandbeck) and had Bay Middleton' s splendid
arms, though his knee-action was by some critics considered to have accounted for a
doubtful Derby performance on the Epsom Hill. But in any case it was good
enough to win both that race and the St. Leger, and to revenge his defeat by
Voltigeur for the Doncaster Cup of 1850, by turning the tables in a two-miles match
at York the next year, in 3 minutes 55 seconds. With so renowned a performer it
will be appropriate to leave the stock of Selim and turn to Rubens, the last of the
famous trio of Woodpecker s grandsons. Rubens was only fit for the turn of speed
which seems best to suit the class of heavy- topped fleshy horse of sixteen hands he was.
The Prince sold him for a cheap thousand to Lord Darlington, who made a very good
thing out of the bargain. It is chiefly for his daughters that Rubens is celebrated, for
he was the sire of Landscape (Oaks, 1816), Pastille (Two Thousand, and Oaks, 1822,
her dam by PotSos] and Whizgig dam of Oxygen. His daughters, too, were the
dams of Defence, Recovery, Coronation and Ascot. One of the best of his sons was Sir
Joshua (1812), a chestnut horse of about fifteen hands out of a Sir Peter mare, the
vanquisher of the cleverly named Filho da Puta, a bay of sixteen and over
by Haphazard out of Mrs. Barnet by Waxy.

I have now gone as far as is necessary with the Woodpecker branch of Herod's line,
and it is time to see how the blood came out that was transmitted by way of Mr.
Tattersall's famous Highflyer, a bay who was bred by Lord Bolingbroke. Though
his sons Noble, Skyscraper and Spadille were all winners, and his daughters Omphalc,
Violante, Cowslip and Young Flora were just as good, his most famous offspring was
Sir Peter Teazle, a brown (out of Papiilon by Snap) who beat O' Kelly and the Eclipse
party for the Derby, after which there was nothing too good for him at Knowsley,
where he stood while PotSos was at Eaton. Like himself his stock were nearly all
brown, arid nearly all as stout as he was, and took a deal of exercising. Among them
were Sir Harry (Derby, 1798), Archduke (Derby, 1799), Ditto (Derby, 1803), Paris

" MA TCHEM" "HEROD." AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.

293

(Derby, 1806), Hermione (Oaks, 1794), Parasote (Oaks, 1796), besides Ambrosia, Fyl-
dener, Paulina, and Petronius, all winners of the Leger. But this is not all.
Haphazard and Stamford were both by him out of Eclipse mares ; the latter is
remembered chiefly by his mares, who were the dams of Mameluke, Bciram, Actceon,
and Emilius. Hapliasard, "a gay nag-looking horse," was ridden by Billy Peirce, who
loved him, in the great race when he beat Buckle on Marcia for the Great Subscrip-
tion Plate at York, by half-a-head. He was the sire of Filko da Puta, who won the

Lord Darlington's " Haphazard " by " Sir

Peter Teazle," dam by "Eclipse."

(William Pierce is taking off his coat, Sam Wheatley holds the bridle.)

Waterloo St. Leger, and was the first foal of Waxy1 s daughter Mrs. Barnet. Filho
da Puta was full sixteen hands, and went very wide behind, but was " as good as
he was good-looking." He became in turn the sire of Birmingham (St. Leger,
1830) and Co/wick the sire of Attila (Derby, 1842).

Perhaps the most distinguished of all Sir Peter's sons must be considered to be Sir
John Shelley's Walton, who was somewhat " cobby-looking," like his half-brother. He
was out of Aret/msa (by Dungannon\ whose grandam Virago was by Snap the
grandson of Flying Ckildcrs. Buckle used to say that he was " always on his head

294 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

for the first mile." In his first season, out of Julia (by Whiskey] he got Phantom, a
Derby winner, and a famous sire of mares, beside such good colts as the two Derby
winners Cedric and Middleton. But his best son was Partisan, a bay foaled in 1811
out of Parasol by PotSos, and one of the finest-actioned horses ever seen at New-
market, where he won several matches owing to the advantage of being tried with
Whisker &\. the Grafton Stables. After he had begotten Venison, Mameluke, Gladiator,
and Glaiicus, he was sold for 165 guineas. But his memory will live on in
his descendants long after his selling-price has been forgotten.

Gladiator, a chestnut with a blood-like head and fine eyes, might have given Bay
Middleton more work for his Derby if he had not sprung a curb at Snaresbrook a
month before the race. He was out of Pauline by Moses (Derby, 1822), who is gener-
ally traced to Whalebone. Though he was the sire of Gladiateurs dam, it is on his
son Sweetmeat that his fame chiefly depends, a very neat dark brown out of Lolly pop who
was by Voltaire (more probably than by Starch, as is sometimes held), her dam
Belinda by Blacklock. Sweetmeat had a clever straight head and neck, with rather
heavy shoulders which he transmitted to his daughter Comfit. Venison, whose grand-
dam was Jerboa (by Gohanna, grandson of Eclipse), was a game little bay horse
with a white reach and both hind fetlocks white, who got all his stock small with
grey hairs in the coat and beautiful eyes. He lurched rather in his gait, but was a
fine stayer when well ridden, and beat Miindig (Derby, 1835) for the King's Plate at
Doncaster (four miles) in a canter. A fine picture of Sam Day on Venison, with the
whole family of Days around him, was painted by Abraham Cooper for the Royal
Academy of 1838, and now hangs in Cambridge House, Regent's Park. His
son Ugly Buck won the Two Thousand of 1844 and his daughter Clementina
got the One Thousand three years later. Out of Southdown (by Defence
a grandson of Waxy) he also got Joe Miller, Kingston, and Alarm (Cam-
bridgeshire, 1845), who had wonderful hips and plenty of his sire's staying
power, and Cruiser, who was tamed by Mr. Rarey and " was nightly lying down at
a word among the sawdust " while his stock were winning at Newmarket.

The last son of Sir Peter whom I can mention as transmitting the best of the High-
flyer blood is Sir Paul out of Evelina (by Highflyer}. He was the sire of Cain
(1822) whose dam was by Paynator, and Cain was the sire of Ion who ran second
in Don John's St. Leger. The son of Ion and Ellen Middleton (by Bay Middleton}
was Wild Dayrell (Derby, 1855) the sire of Buccaneer, who begot the great Kisber,
and also had a famous daughter in Formosa.

MATCHEM," "HEROD," AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.

295

It is perhaps appropriate that our considerations of Herod's line should have ended
in a mare. For in tail-male that line is sadly weak at the present moment. Taking
the first of the two great branches we have examined, the Woodpecker blood through
Thormanby seems to have died out in England, though in France Le Saucy is highly
valued and Bay Middhton" s descendants (through Flying Dutchman} are numerous,
with Callistrate at their head in 1900 ; in America the Glencoe stock through Hanover
are well to the front. Of the Highflyer blood we have scarcely more to boast about.

Lord Derby's ' ' Sir Peter Teazle ' '
(Derby, 1787).

Glaucns is still strong, but not on this side of the Channel. Venisons line has vanished.
Of the Partisan stock, which the late Lord Falmouth valued so highly, we have the
Parmesan line in Morglay, Primrose League, Bosphonis, Favonian and Royal Flush ;
and the Macaroni branch is represented in Macmahon, Craig Royston, and a few
others. The Gladiator family is in fact far stronger in France, in Germany, and in
Hungary than in England, where Ponlet (grandson of Venire St. Gris) has only
begotten one decent representative, Limasol, winner of the Oaks. Through Wild
Dayrell alone is the blood of Sir Paul surviving, and in Buccaneer the best of it was

296

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

sent out of the country, though some came back in Crafton. Wild Dayrell's son The
Rake has indeed transmitted it throug-h Grey Leg, but if anything is to be done with
Herod blood in England it is getting fairly evident that we must get it through the
Fisherman and Glencoe branches which have been refreshed in Australia and America
respectively. The fashionable success of Galopin blood has for the moment swamped
the Herods ; but it would be little less than fatal to let so great a line die out entirely.

Already in 1898, of the seventy-eight best stallions advertised in the United
Kingdom, Eclipse was responsible for sixty-four, forty-one being through PotSos,
the others through King Fergus and Joe Andrews. Matchem was only represented
(through Melbourne, West Australian and Solon} by Kilwarlin, Morion, Marco, Sir
Vistoand Winkfield. Herod was only represented in eight stallions, viz., Crafton, Des-
pair, Dog Rose, Grey Leg, Macheath, Mac/nahon, Morglay, and Ocean Wave, these being
through Castrel, Pantaloon, and Thormanby, and through Ion, Wild Dayrell, Buc-
caneer and See Saw. If we take the first eighteen stallions from 1894 to 1897
inclusive, all trace to Eclipse, except Despair who comes from Herod.

This leads me naturally to the last and greatest of the three great sires, Eclipse,
the great-great-grandson of The Darley Arabian in direct male descent, who must
have a chapter to himself.

Colonel O'Kelly and his Jockey.

CHAPTER XII.

ECLIPSE AND THE MODERN THOROUGHBRED.

" Effodere loco signum, quod regia Juno
Monstrdrat, caput acris eqiii, sic namfore bcllo
Egregiam ct facilcm virtu per sccciila gentem."

T T probably holds as true to-day, as it did when Carthage was mistress of the seas,
that the prosperity of a country is intimately connected with the welfare and the
excellence of its horses. If the dawn of the twentieth century showed one lesson that
was driven home more clearly than another to Great Britain, it was the necessity of a
well-organised Remount Department for the armies of the Empire. One event after
another has been chosen as the opportunity for lamentation over the decay -of horse-
breeding. First it was the railway ; then it was the bicycle and the motor-car. But
the horse remains as indispensable as ever, and the backbone of English breeding
must remain, what it has always been, the thoroughbred of the English racecourse.
So there are very wide general reasons, apart from the everlasting personal in-
terest, why the details about Eclipse should be carefully considered in any book
which treats of the English Turf as a portion of English social and political life.
I shall therefore set before my readers, as briefly as may be, the known facts, and
the possible deductions from them, which centre round one of the most famous horses
that have ever lived.

In a book called " Essai sur les proportions Geometrales de 1'Eclipse par
M. Charles Vial de Saint Bel, Professeur du College Veterinaire de Londres,1'
which was translated in 1791, sold by Shepperson and Reynolds, at " No. 137,
Oxford Road," and dedicated to the Prince of Wales, a careful study of Eclipse
was made with three objects. "(i) As a surer guide to the brush or chisel of
the artist, who commonly only employs them in opposition to nature. (2) It

VOL. II. RR

298 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

would teach a better choice of the animal, and to exact from it no greater exer-
tion than nature had rendered it capable of yielding. (3) By means of this table we
should be enabled to establish the true conformation of the racehorse ; and at any
given time to discover whether the breed had degenerated."

On the morning of the 25th of February, 1789, Eclipse was seized with a violent
cholic, and died at seven in the evening of the 27th, in the twenty-sixth year of his
ao-e. He was killed by inflammation of the bowels, as was shown in the post-
mortem, and his heart weighed fourteen pounds. In the investigations made to
discover the mechanical reasons for his speed and endurance, Saint Bel found that
he differed from the table of equine proportions used by the pupils of the Veterinary
Schools of France in the following points : (i) His height was not three heads but
three and a-half. (2) His neck was not one head in length, but one and a-half.
(3) The height of his body was not equal to its length, but exceeded it by about one-
tenth. (4) The perpendicular line falling from his stifle did not touch the toe, but
fell as much as half a head in front of it. (5) The distance from his elbow to the
bend of his knee was not equal to the distance from the bend of his knee to the
ground, but was two parts of a head longer. The last two points especially will be
recognised as being highly important.

Seeking rather more deeply the causes which underly any resulting speed in
certain conformations, Saint Bel showed that long and obliquely-set shoulders were
better, because the more they incline backward the further will the arms of the lever
be extended in the portion of a circle which it will describe. For the same reason
a wide and flat hock in a justly proportioned leg was of service, because the angle
formed by the tibia and the calcaneum was larger than in smaller conformations,
and therefore allowed the hind legs to be placed obliquely forward under the body,
at a distance even beyond the centre of gravity of the whole animal.

By dividing the length of the head of Eclipse (which was 22 inches) into 22 parts
of equal length, Saint Bel established a common measure for every part of his body.
He then showed that 3 heads and 13 parts gave Eclipses height, when properly
placed, from the foretop to the ground ; 3 heads exactly from the withers to the
ground ; 3 heads and 3 parts his entire length of body from the most prominent part
of the chest to the extremity of the buttocks ; i head and 19 parts was a common
measure for three things, viz., the height of the perpendicular line from elbow to
ground, the distance from the top of the withers to the stifle, and the distance from
the top of the rump to the elbow ; i head and 4 parts provided a common measure

"ECLIPSE" AND THE MODERN THOROUGHBRED. 299

for no less than six things, viz., the thickness of the body from middle of back to
middle of belly, the breadth of the body, the distance from summit of rump to
extremity of buttocks, the distance from the root of the tail to the stifle (i.e., the
articulation of femur with tibia), the distance from the stifle to the hock, and the
height from the hock to the extremity of the hoof.

The perpendicular lines in the measurements of Eclipse are those which are of
most value in the above proportions, especially when taken in connection with the
facts that his height from the withers to the ground was 66 inches, and from the top
of the rump to the ground 67, while the length of his body from the. most
prominent part of his chest to the extremity of the buttocks was 69 inches.

The measurements of the bones in his fore and hind-legs were as follows :—

Ins.

Shoulder-blade. . . .18

Htimerus, or arm . . . . .12
Cubitus, or forearm , 16

Canon, or shank . . . . 12

Pastern, coronet, and foot .... 7

Ins.

Os ileon . . . . 12

Femur . . . . . . .15

Tibia .19

Shank or leg . . . . . . 14

Pastern, coronet, and foot .... 9

It may be interesting to note here that Lord Rockingham's measurement of
Sampson (by Blaze, foaled 1745), who was 15-2, and supposed to have been the
largest-boned blood horse ever bred, are given by Mr. H. T. Morland in 1810 as
follows : —

Ins.

(1) Fore-leg, from hair of hoof to middle of fetlock joint .... 4

(2) From fetlock joint to bend of knee « . -. -. . .11

(3) From bend of knee to elbow . » ._;„ . . . . . . 19

(4) Round smallest part of leg below the knee . . . 8 J

(5) Round smallest part of hind-leg .... . . -9

Taking the centre of motion for the shoulder as the middle of the shoulder-blade,
Eclipse's shoulder in movement described a portion of a circle equal to 40 degrees ;
his humerus described an equal angle ; his forearm 90 degrees ; his cannon 90 degrees ;
the pastern, coronet, and foot described, one with another in their flexion backward,
100 degrees.

In his hind-legs, the os ileon bent upward and downward in an arc of a circle
equivalent to 30 degrees ; the femur, or thigh-bone, 50 degrees ; the tibia, 80 degrees ;
the shank, 100 degrees; the pastern, coronet, and foot describe, one with another,
100 degrees.

It will be seen therefore that the total of the flexion in both the fore and hind-
legs of Eclipse comes to a perfect circle of 360 degrees ; and if to this perfect

8

I

1

"ECLIPSE" AND THE MODERN THOROUGHBRED. 301

framework we add the muscular development he possessed, we arrive, says Saint
Bel, at the fact that it would be possible for him, galloping at liberty at his full
speed, to cover 25 feet at each complete action, and to make two and one-third of
such actions in each second. This means that with a featherweight on a straight
course he would only take two seconds over the six minutes to complete four miles.

In the diagram here reproduced from that made by Saint Bel, to show the motions
of Eclipse's legs, the great segment of a circle marked M, proceeding from the print
of his fore-feet to the print of his hind-feet, shows the total extent covered by the
full extension of the limbs. The two curves R and R, proceeding upwards from his
fore and hind-feet, indicate the arcs through which the feet pass in their motion. The
oblique line N, from the protuberance of the hip-bone to the print of the hind-
foot, shows the action of the hind-legs; the line O, from the same point of the hip-bone
to the print of the fore-foot, shows the direction of the hind-legs when they come
forward at the gallop. The line P, from the summit of the shoulder to the print of the
fore-foot, shows the action of the fore-legs ; and the line Q, from the same point of the
shoulder to the last print of the hind-foot, shows the completed action of the fore-leg.
It is curious and interesting to observe that instantaneous photography has
completely vindicated the accuracy of these extraordinary movements and positions
which Saint Bel originally worked out from purely mathematical measure-
ments a century ago, and which are too rapid (especially in the case of O and O) to
be observed by the human eye.

A reference to the diagram I reproduce here from Saint Bel's monograph will
make the foregoing remarks more intelligible, and in the case of so interesting an
animal, I make no apology for giving all the material I can to enable modern readers
to get the best idea now possible of his conformation. It will therefore be well to
compare this diagram, made from careful measurements of the horse's body, with the
photograph in this chapter of Eclipse's skeleton, which is preserved at the Royal
College of Veterinary Surgeons, in Red Lion Square, London. This invaluable
relic was presented to the College by Professor John Gamgee, on the 27th of
January, 1871, who also sent the following receipt as a guarantee of authenticity.
" 1 8, Giltspur Street, London, 22nd November, 1860. Received of Mr. Joseph
Gamgee, for account of Professor John Gamgee of the New Veterinary College,
Edinburgh, the sum of one hundred and five pounds for value of the skeleton complete
of the renowned \\orszEclipse, son of Marske. (Signed) Bracy Clark." Mr. Bracy
Clark, Fellow of the Linnaean Society, wrote a "Short History of the Horse" in

302

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

1814, and a "Sectional Figure of the Horse" in 1813, which was republished in
1842. The investigations of Saint Bel would therefore not only be familiar to him as
an anatomist, but fresh in his personal memory, and he no doubt acquired the famous
subject of them as soon as it was possible to do so, with a zeal which deserves
imitation in days when the British Museum of Natural History at South Kensington
does not possess a single specimen of similar interest to the horse-breeder.

Though many entirely irrelevant objects are in the same glass case with it,

TJif. Skeleton of ' 'Eclipse. ' '

As it may now be seen at the Royal College of Veterinarv
Surgeons in Red Lion Square (April, 1902).

the skeleton was thus preserved in the most appropriate place at that time, because,
as John Orton records, it was here that these historic bones were originally treated,
the muscles being removed, but the ligaments preserved, as may still be seen ; and
no doubt it was our enthusiastic Frenchman who did the work, for we find from the
title page of Saint Bel's quarto that he was " Professeur au College Veterinaire de
Londres." John Orton further records ("Turf Annals," p. 103, York, 1844) that
" for many years " this skeleton was preserved " in the Museum of Mr. Edward Bond,
Haunch of Venison Yard, Upper Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, London, a pupil

ECLIPSE " AND THE MODERN THOROUGHBRED

303

of HI. tie Saint Bel, member of the R.V.C. and Veterinarian to the Duke of Clarence."
The photograph of this skeleton should be compared with Stubbs's admirable
engraving in my first volume (p. 45). It will be seen, even by the observer who is
no skilled anatomist, that the Veterinary College has hardly appreciated the value of
the skeleton which ought to be its most cherished possession. A glance at the bones
of Touchstone, so beautifully kept at Eaton, will further demonstrate that proper
preservation and display is no difficult matter. I have reproduced the photo of the
skeleton of Eclipse exactly as it was in February, 1902, but I shall hope, before
another decade is past, to see both these bones and those of Touchstone in the
British Museum of Natural History at South Kensington, where the two would form a
splendid nucleus of the collection of thoroughbred types which is at present only
conspicuous by its absence. Perhaps the Museum at York might then be induced to
allow the remains of J3liuk Bonny to join the illustrious company. Hermit and
^•Ipology would be notable additions ; and there are no doubt others possible, both of
the past and in the future.

This is not the only material relic of the most famous English thoroughbred who
ever raced. Matthew Uawson had a piece of Eclipses skin, which was sent to the
Durdans by his heir on his death in 1898. There it has an honoured place in one
of the finest sporting collections in the world, and I have seen the Epsom sun-
light shining on the fine light chestnut hair. Beneath it is affixed a letter, signed
" R. B. Pitman, July 1865," saying that it is " part of a larger piece given to me by
Lieut. -Colonel Andrew Denis O'Kelly" (nephew of Eclipses owner), the proprietor
of Cannons Park, Middlesex, where Eclipse died, and where his stuffed skin stood
in the loft over the stables in 1810.

Another relic of the great racer and sire is to be found in the Newmarket
Challenge Whip, said to have been originally given as a prize by Charles II., though
no proof of Royal ownership exists, and the arms on the handle are not Stuart.
What is more certain is that in course of time the value of this interesting trophy was
very much enhanced by the fact that some hairs from the mane and tail of Eclipse
were woven into its lash and wristband, owing perhaps to the victories of PotSos and
Diingauiion in 1783 and 1786 respectively. Its previous winners were Sharkc, Sweet
William, Gimcrack, Malton, and a horse variously called Dnmplin and Dimple, who
existed at a date which is equally vague, and varies from 1702 to 1764. The
subject reminds me that in 1821 George IV. may have been following the accepted
tradition when he gave a Gold Whip to the Turf Club in Ireland in 1821, to be run

304 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

for annually at the Curragh. A third famous whip was that which the celebrated
jockey, Francis Buckle, sent over to Germany by the hand of Mr. Richard Tattersall
to become a challenge prize, adding by way of commentary that " with it he had won
five Derbies, two St. Ledgers, nine Oaks, and all the good things at Newmarket."
Before me as I write is the old Race Card for August 12, 1828, headed " Mecklen-
burgs Pferderennen, Doberaner Bahn. Richter, Str. Konigl. Hoheit Prinz Wilhelm
von Preussen," wherein it is announced that at eleven that morning will be held
" Rennen um Francis Buckle's Peitsche, verehrt durch Herrn Richard Tattersall."
Those were the days when German breeding, of which I shall have a little more to
say later, was benefiting by such importations as Brutandorf (by BlacklocK), Plumper
(by Election), and Phantom (by Walton), and when Count Batthyany was about to
begin a career upon the English Turf which was crowned by his Derby victory with
Galopin.

Yet a third relic of the real Eclipse that must be mentioned here is his gold-
mounted hoof, which was presented, in the year of the Great Reform Bill, by
William IV. at his annual dinner at St. James's Palace, on May i6th, to members of
the Jockey Club, an institution which is singularly poor in such historic relics. It is
beautifully mounted in the centre of a gold salver on a gold pedestal, with an inscrip-
tion recording the gift and the date of 1832. The top is covered in with gold. Like the
Whip, the Hoof was originally given for a challenge race, run on the Ascot Thursday.
The King added ^200, and there was ,£100 sweepstakes between members of the
Jockey Club alone. The first contest took place on the same afternoon ihaA.Camarine
and Rowton ran a dead heat for the Gold Cup, and was run over the same course.
There had only been three subscribers, one scratched, and Conolly on Lord
Chesterfield's Priam beat John Day on General Grosvenor's Sarpedon. In 1834
Lord Chesterfield won again with Glaucus (Bill Scott up), beating Galiopade, who
had won for Mr. Cosby the year before. Twelve months later Mr. Batson challenged,
but there was no response, and the Hoof remains to this day in the quiet possession
of the Jockey Club. It may be hoped that His present Majesty may be able to
suggest a way in which so interesting a trophy can once more be put up for a more
open competition.

In the apartment of the Jockey Club called " Number One Card-room," there
hangs a picture of Eclipse, presented by Lord Rivers, in the same room with that of
Poca/iontas (over the door), of the thirty-six-gun frigate " Pique," and a canvas by
Stubbs, both these last presented by Admiral Rous. It is said that Lord Rivers

"ECLIPSE " AXD THE MODERN THOROUGHBRED. 305

found this painting of Eclipse at Rushmore, his country seat in Dorsetshire, and that
after a sojourn with Admiral Rous in Berkeley Square it passed, by the original
desire of Lord Rivers, to the Jockey Club. The name of the artist is given
on the frame now as " Garrard," and this may well be the case, for the
work possesses none of the skill or actuality which may be seen either in Sartorius
or in Stubbs in the same inspiring subject. Indeed, the painting of Pumpkin (which
is a replica of those at the Durdans and at Cumberland Lodge) in the second card-
room is the only good example of that great artist which the Club possesses. By far
the finest painting of Eclipse I have ever seen is the careful study on rough canvas,
evidently done from accurate measurement, which hangs in Sir Walter Gilbey's fine
collection at Elsenham Hall. This was undoubtedly the work of Stubbs and no
other, and it shows his anatomical skill as much as his artistic feeling. It is sad to
think that when Mr. Bracy Clark, whom I mentioned just now in speaking of the
skeleton at the Veterinary College, visited the artist in Somerset Street, Portman
Square, six months before his death, he found him sadly discontented with the
remuneration such fine work had been able to secure. This study of Eclipse has never
been reproduced before. It is painted on canvas 24.} ins. by 29! ins., without a back-
ground, and was probably taken from life, for the head is as full of character as that
of Gimcrack, painted by the same artist. Originally in the collection of Mr. H. A. J.
Munro, of Novar, it is now, by the kind permission of Sir Walter Gilbey, given in
these pages not only that it may be compared with Stubbs' own drawing of a
skeleton (Vol. I., p. 45) and with the actual skeleton of Eclipse in the Veterinary
College, but also because it was the original sketch from which the well-known
finished picture was painted, as may be seen on page 151 of my first volume, where
it will be noticed that a slight mistake in the colour of the off hind hoof in this sketch
has been corrected in the finished painting. This same sketch must also have been
used for an equally interesting and less well-known painting (40 ins. by 50 ins.),
evidently made to Mr. Wildman's order by Stubbs, for it represents this fortunate,
owner himself seated by a tree, with two boys, one of whom holds Eclipse by his
bridle. The horse is in exactly the same position as in the sketch, and the boughs
of the tree over his head make a beautiful contrast to his chestnut coat. As a
composition the painting is much superior to that which I refer to later (No. 3) at
the Durdans. It was sold at Christie's in March, 1902, by the executors of
Mr. J. R. F. Burnett, grandson of Mr. Wildman, and is now most appropriately
placed at Elsenham in the collection which already contained so many fine examples
VOL. ii. s s

L I t.

306 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

by the same artist. The sketch from it which was painted evidently established itself
as a type of what the rendering of Eclipse should be by any artist, for in the beautifully-
coloured painting by J. N. Sartorius, at the Durdans, in which the horse is repre-
sented with Oakley (in red with a black cap) in the saddle, the attitude of the head
and the position of the legs are identically similar, as may be observed in the
reproduction which Lord Rosebery has courteously allowed me to make for this
volume. For many reasons, therefore, we may take it that these two pictures give
us the nearest representation now possible of Eclipse as he really was, and this con-

" Eclipse," ridden by T. OaUey
(in red with black cap).

elusion will only be strengthened by anyone who examines them more closely by the
aid of the diagrams and measurements made by Saint Bel. I cannot complete this
portion of my subject without adding that the wonderful collection at the Durdans
also contains the following paintings of Eclipse : (i) by F. Sartorius in 1770, a picture
very like the well-known Stubbs' (Vol. I., p. 151), but without the jockey and with
a different background; (2) by Stubbs, showing the horse cantering at exercise in
his clothing, not a very successful work ; (3) the original of the well-known engraving
by Stubbs ; (4) a sketch for this original, showing only one jockey ; (5) a somewhat
impossible Sartorius, depicting the animal " at full stretch," with his jockey riding

"ECLIPSE" AND THE MODERN THOROUGHBRED. 307

him ; (6) a better Sartorius, showing the horse in repose ; (7) another by J. N.
Sartorius ; (8) Eclipse beating Corsican at Newmarket, on October 3rd, 1770, by
F. Sartorius. I fear my readers must take it for granted that it is only after careful
comparison of these and many others that I have arrived at the selection now
presented to them, for the most indulgent of publishers can afford me no more space
for artistically commemorating the merits of a single animal.

" He was a big horse," wrote Mr. Percival, the veterinary surgeon, " in every sense
of the word, tall in stature, lengthy and capacious in body, and large in his limbs.
For a big horse his head was small and partook of the Arabian character ; his neck was
unusually long ; his shoulder was strong, sufficiently oblique, and although not
remarkable for, not deficient in depth. His chest was circular; he rose very little
on his withers, being higher behind than before ; his back was lengthy, and over the
loins reached ; his quarters were straight, square, and extended ; his limbs were
lengthy and broad, and his joints large, in particular his arms and thighs were long
and muscular, and his knees and hocks broad and well-formed." Mr. John Lawrence
says : " When I first saw him, his shoulder was very thick, but extensive and well
placed ; his hindquarters appeared higher than his forehand ; and it was said that no
horse in his gallop ever threw his haunches with greater effect, his agility and his
stride being on a par."

Whatever picture may result from the various testimonies I have brought together
it is certain that Eclipse was never beaten. He never had a whip flourished over him
or felt the rubbing of a spur ; outfooting, outstriding, and outlasting every horse that
started against him. His pedigree appears in the appendix to my last volume, and
though he is certainly the great-great-grandson in direct male descent of the Darley
Arabian, it must not be forgotten that the following strains of Eastern blood also
entered into his composition : — The Lister Turk (5), The D'Arcy Yellow Turk (5), The
D'Arcy White Turk (5), The Helmsley Turk (2), The Byerly Turk, The Oglethorpe
Arabian, Pullcines Arabian, the Ancaster Turk, the St. Victor Barb, the Fenwick
Barb, Hutlons Grey Barb, Huttoris Bay Barb, the Godolphin Arabian, and various
" Royal Mares" who are supposed to have been of pure Eastern blood. It should also
be noted that through his sire Marske he inherited the blood of that Bustler mare
who was fourth dam of the Coney skins mare on page 7 of the General Stud Book,
Vol. I., from whose family came Orville, Sultan, Ncwminster, Ayrshire and St. Serf;
through his clam Spiletta he traced back to that Royal mare from whom came the
Montagu mare, on page 13 of the first volume of the General Stud Book, in whose

308 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

line occur Saltram, Voltaire, Weaiherbit, Adventurer, Sterling, and Springfield ; while
Regnlus, his maternal grandsire is descended from the Sedbury Royal mare who was
the dam of Miss D'Arcy's Pet Mare (General btud Book, Vol. I., 15), and in whose
line are such names as Birdcatcher, St. Simon, Royal Hampton and Orme.

The Darley Arabian was a bay of the family called by the Arabs " Managhi." He
was not " Koheilan Ras-el-Fedawi,"as Captain Upton thought. He had a white snip
down his face, like his great descendant, and of his three white feet Eclipse also kept
one. I have mentioned him here because there is a most interesting note in
Mr. Tattersall's First Album, stating the opinion that not Marske, but Shakespeare^
was the sire of Eclipse, " for Sliakespeare was a large and strong chestnut with white
legs and face, who got chestnuts and was a good runner. Marske was a bad runner,
a brown, who got brown or bay. Mr. O'Kelly's groom says Eclipse 's dam was covered
by both, and first by Shakespeare." If this were true, Eclipse would trace back through
Shakespeare to Hobgoblin, Aleppo, and so to Flying Childers. But I cannot accept
"Mr. O'Kelly's groom" as evidence of what went on in the Duke of Cumberland's
stables, and the general consensus of expert opinion has long ago decided that the
real line is from Bartletf s Childers, own brother to Flying Childers by the Darley
Arabian, and so by way of Squirt, to Marske. I have already given reasons for
thinking that the greater impurity of this line in the matter of Eastern blood, as
compared with the other line, need be no argument against the excellence of its
progeny, and judged by the rough standard of results it would be difficult to find
better than Ellipse provided, though it is much to be regretted that he never had an
opportunity of racing Goldfinder by Snap, a horse of his own age who was a grand-
son of Flying Childers and therefore a representative of the line from the Darley
Arabian which has sometimes been considered superior in breeding to his own.

H.R.H. The Duke of Cumberland owned both Marske and Spiletta, so that the
greatest credit that can ever be given to human agency in the production of their
famous offspring is due to him. The colt that was foaled in the year of the great
eclipse, and took his name from that sympathetic disturbance of the elements, has
been claimed by many localities. An old thorn tree on Sir Francis Doyle's property
at Mickleham, Dorking, is mentioned as his birthplace ; so are the Berkshire Downs
between Ilsley and Wantage ; and even the Isle of Dogs ; besides the most probable
of all, Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park. In any case, his owner and
breeder did not have the satisfaction of living long enough to see the beauty he had
got, for he was sold for about eighty guineas at the Duke's death, when little more

ECLIPSE" AND THE MODERN THOROUGHBRED.

3°9

SttL

than a yearling, to Mr. William Wildman, an astute salesman in Leadenhall Market, who
had a stud at Mickleham (whence, perhaps, the thorn-tree legend) and knew a good
thing when he saw one. He came late for the sale ; found it had begun too early;
and insisted on the lots being resold, which was accordingly done. Being in no
hurry to " realise," and having no large outlay of capital for which to recoup himself
as soon as possible, the meat-salesman conferred an inestimable benefit upon the
Turf by keeping Eclipse till 1769 before he raced him, and by patiently finding the
right jockey when the colt first showed temper. Had Eclipse been born in the year
of grace and enlightenment 1901, there is every probability that he would have been
raced off his legs for all the two-year-old prizes in sight, and so "treated " for "vice"
that he would
never have had any
posterity at all.
The sportsmen of
the twentieth cen-
tury may therefore
perhaps reconsider
the verdict that
has been some-
what too hastily
passed on the
days of Dennis
O' Kelly.

It was on a

3rd of May that Eclipse first faced the starter as a five-year-old at Epsom,
8st., six-year-olds gst. 3lbs., four-mile heats. John Oakley had nothing to do
but sit quite still. He beat Mr. Fortescue's Gower (by Sweepstakes), Mr. Castle's
Cade (6 years), Mr. Jennings' Trial (by Biank\ and Mr. Quick's Plum: In the
second heat, O' Kelly, who had speedily realised that "something good " was on
hand, made the famous bet that he would place all the horses. He won, with
" Eclipse first, and the rest nowhere," for the chestnut distanced all his competitors
with the greatest ease, and in the last mile fairly ran away with his jockey till he
passed the winning-post. Before the i3th of June O'Kelly had bought a half-share
in him from Wildman for 650 guineas, and on that day he won the King's Plate at
Winchester for six-year-olds at last., giving away a year to Mr. Turner's Slouch^

Mr. Meredith's " Shakespeare " by
" Hobgoblin."

310

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

Blank, the Duke of Grafton's Chigger by Slouch, Mr. Gott's Juba by Regulus, and
distancing Mr. O'Kelly's Caliban by Brilliant, and Mr. Bailey's Clanville. Two
days after he frightened all the other horses out of his race. He only raced for one
more year, yet he won eleven King's Plates, one of them at i2st., walked over for
seven, and beat his horses with great ease in the others. It was almost impossible
to get on other matches for him unless he was backed to distance his opponents, and
when O'Kelly completed his purchase by giving 1,100 guineas for the other half, it
was about the best bargain he ever made. The betting was often " ten to one on,"
and only on one occasion was anything approaching to equality displayed, when he
beat Bucephalus at Newmarket in April, 1770, B.C., 8st. 7lbs., a race which nearly
broke the heart of this stout north-country son of Regulus. An even more creditable
performance was his victory at Guildford on the 23rd of August, four miles, the Sub-
scription Purse. He had distanced Mr. Wentworth's Tortoise and Sir Charles
Bunbury's Bellario (both aged) by half-way, and won as he liked. At the October
Meeting that year he made his last appearance on the Turf at Newmarket, beating
Sir Charles Bunbury's Corsica by Swiss, B.C., and after walking over the Round
Course for the King's Plate, i2st., he was taken out of training with an unbeaten
career. I can quite imagine that many owners gave a sigh of relief, and that many
more interesting years than 1769 and 1770 have been known in the history of
English racing. Nowadays we might consider it an unfortunate symptom if a
single animal stood head and shoulders above all his contemporaries. Certainly
the season of 1901 showed enough in-and-out running to satisfy anybody; and left
1902 in as pleasing a state of uncertainty as could possibly be desired. But in
the days when " O'Kelly's gang " are supposed to have fleeced every race-meeting,
one horse won everything, and it was almost impossible to get any profitable bets on
the result. This deserves remembering, for I have only reproduced sufficient of
Eclipses performances to fill in the portrait of one of the best horses ever seen,
by showing that his excellence was not only owing to the races he won, but even
more clearly to the astonishing ease with which he won them, and to the fact that
in addition to his undoubted speed and stride, he possessed sound wind, an ability to
carry heavy weight, and an endurance over long distances which could never be
thoroughly tested, for its limit was never reached.

But O'Kelly's triumphs were far from over when Eclipse left the race-course. A
long and animated rivalry almost at once began between the Eclipse stock and the
Highflyer division, who swore by Herod blood, as may be seen in the book published

" ECLIPSE " AND THE MODERN THOROUGHBRED. 3 1 1

by their apostle, Mr. T. H. Morland, in 1810. He would hear of nothing else, and
seemed to think that Eclipse only existed to provide mares for Herod's sons. When
the mourning population round Cannons were eating funeral cakes and ale in 1789
O'Kelly's poet flung one last defiance at Mr. Tattersall.

" True, o'er the tomb in which this favourite lies
No vaunting boast appears of lineage good ;
Yet the Turf Register's bright page defies
The race of Herod to show better blood."

It was fifteen years before the good horse died that the first of his get ran in public,
the grey colt Horizon (out of Clio by Young Cade], who won 390 guineas at Abing-
don in 1774 when two years old. In twenty-three years 344 winners, of whom he
was the sire, won ,£158,047, " an enormous sum for those cautious days," as " The
Druid " says in a passage which is usually misprinted to bring the figures up to half
a million. In the former sum a few victories by PotSos, Empress, Young Eclipse,
General, Dungannon, Gunpowder, and Meteor (between 1779 and 1789) are not in-
cluded ; and it should be added that O'Kelly reckoned his profits from the stud fees
at ,£25,000, which is probably under the mark.

Eclipse first stood as a stallion at Clay Hill, near Epsom, at 50 guineas. In 1788 he
was removed to Cannons in a two-horse van with the groom inside, which is probably
the first instance of such a careful transit. He died a year afterwards. He was the
sire of three Derby winners, Young Eclipse (1781), Saltram (1783), and Serjeant
(1784), and of Annette, winner of the Oaks in 1787. His blood was handed down
chiefly through his sons PotSos, King Fergus, Joe Andreius, Mercury, and Alexander ;
and modern thoroughbreds can trace their debt to him in the pedigrees of Whiskey,
Gohanna, Tramp, Waxy, Orville, Whalebone, Whisker, Blacklock, Touchstone, Hark-
away, Newminster, Stockwell, and Wcatherbit.

Good judges have risked the assertion that PotSos was the best horse of the
eighteenth century, and Mr. Joseph Osborne has pointed out that if the prints of him
are correct, his shape was almost exactly reproduced in Birdcatcher and in Ki>ig-
wood, who has fine strains of him. He was a chestnut with some white on his face,
bred by Lord Abingdon in 1773 out of Sportmistress, tracing back to Mr. Thwaites'
famous dun mare by the Ancaster Turk ; and he was inbred to the Darley Arabian,
besides having two strains of the Godolphin and four of the Byerly Turk. Between
1776 and 1783 he won thirty-five out of forty-six races, most of which were over the
4 miles i furlong and 143 yards of the Beacon Course, and the first meeting at

312 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

which he made his appearance at Newmarket would deserve a special mention, if
only for the fact that two great founders of the American Turf especially distin-
guished themselves, namely, Mr. Piggott's Shark by Marske, who won 1,000 guineas
in his match against Mr. Greville's Postmaster by Herod, Rowley Mile, 8st., and Sir
John Shelley's Sarpedon by Snap, who was beaten by Lord Ossory's Dorimant by
Of ho, in the Great Sweepstakes (now the Two Thousand), worth ,£5,500. The
same two owners met again, and with the same result, when Counts (another Otho) •
beat Hudibras by Herod. Among the other horses were Lord Grosvenor's Little
Gem (by Gimcrack), Mr. Piggott's Bellerophon and Salopian (by Marske), Sir L.
Dundas's Pontac (by Marske), who beat O'Kelly's Horizon and five others over the
Beacon Course, the young Duke of Cumberland's Eclipse colt, who beat Mr. Ver-
non's Zerbino, and Lord Clermont's Johnny (by Matchem), who beat Lord Rocking-
ham's Cincinnatns (by Sampson).

At the Craven Meeting of 1778 Lord Abingdon won the sweepstakes of 1,200
guineas with PotSos, but was so little consoled for his defeat in the previous year by
Lord Grosvenor's Grey Robin, that he sold him during the race to Lord Grosvenor
for 1,500 guineas, with the result thrown in, which may be taken as an example of a
bad bargain. Under the yellow and black cap PotSos promptly began a victorious
career on the Turf, which was only equalled by his successes at the stud, and com-
pares most favourably with the records of such favourites as Lord Ossory's Dorimant
(.£13.363), Lord Rockingham's Bay Malton, or Shark's " ,£15,507, eleven hogsheads
of claret, and a cup worth 120 guineas." It may be mentioned that the owners who
had registered their colours about this time were the Dukes of Cumberland, Grafton,
Devonshire, Northumberland, Kingston, Ancaster, and Bridgewater, the Marquis of
Rockingham, the Earls of Waldegrave, Oxford, March, Gower, Grosvenor, and
Farnham, Viscount Bolingbroke, Sir T. C. Bunbury, Sir John Moore, Sir James
Lowther, Messrs. R. Vernon, Greville, Jenison Shafto, C. J. Fox, Piggott, Blake,
Ogilvy, and Wentworth ; a small list when compared to the 590 of 1862 and the
enormous number at the present day.

Whatever the majority of these gentleman may have thought of the merits of
PotSos, Lord Grosvenor soon made up his mind that he had got a treasure at the
Eaton stud, where this great stallion became the sire of 165 winners of prizes
amounting to ,£57,595, the best of whom was Waxy, who has been thought to have
brought more "high quality" into English bloodstock than any other single sire.
Waxy was a bay, foaled in 1790, his dam Maria (by Herod), through whom he wqnt

"ECLIPSE" A AD 7 HE MODERN THOROUGHBRED.

313

back once more to the Darley Arabian through Blaze, the son of Flying Childers.
He was peculiarly fortunate in the mares sent to him by the foresight and intelligence
of the Duke of Grafton, who was the owner of Prunella (by Highflyer) from whom he
had already bred Penelope by Trumpaior, Parasol by PotSos, Pelisse and Pioneer by
Whiskey, and Podargus by Worthy. All except Pioneer were winners, and he
became the sire of Advance. When Prunella visited Waxy she became the dam of
Waxy Pope, Pledge (dam of Tiresias), and Pope Joan. As soon as Penelope had

By permission of Mr. Somerville Tattersall.

Lord Abingdoit's "PotSos "
by " Eclipse " (1773).

finished winning her eighteen races, she was in her turn sent to Waxy, and
the result was one of the most extraordinary families ever bred by any mare. In 1807
appeared Whalebone, in the next year Web, in 1809 Woful, and in 1812 Whisker.
Of these three Whalebone proved to be the most distinguished, for he was the sire of
two bay Derby winners in Lapdog and Spaniel, and of a third bay who won the Oaks
in Caroline. His line was handed down by Camel, Defence and Sir Hercules, and it is
the "cart-horse-quartered Camel" who produced Caravan, and the two own-brothers
Touchstone and Launcelot,

VOL. II. TT

314 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

Touchstone was a brown, foaled in 1831, and you may see his skeleton to this day,
near old Bend Or's loose box at Eaton. His dam Banter was by Master Henry who
was by Orville, grandson of King Fergus. He was scarcely 15-2, with rather coarse
roots to his ears, and galloped wide behind, •' as many stayers do." He did not run
for the Derby, but won the St. Leger like his brother Launcelot, and became the sire
of Cotherstone and Orlando, winners of the Derby, of Surplice who won the Derby and
St. Leger for the first time since Champion (by PotSos) did the trick eight and forty
years before, of Mendicant (Oaks, 1846), of Blue Bonnet (St. Leger, 1842), and of
Newminster (St. Leger, 1851). In the breeding of nine-tenths of our present horses
we find the influence of Touchstone, who traces to PotSos through Waxy, Whalebone, and
Camel ; of Birdcatcher who goes back to the same source through Waxy, Whalebone,
and Sir Hercules ; and of Harkaway who is also descended from PotSos through
Waxy, Whisker, and Economist. On Touchstone's descendants I must not linger any
further for the present, though I cannot refrain from two remarks, on the Newminster
and the Ithuriel branch respectively. In 1880 that marvellous mare Kincsem (who
was by Cambuscan the son of Newminster} was sent to the stud after a career on the
Turf which will never be forgotten in the annals of Hungarian breeding. She ran
in fifty-four races over every kind of ground, in any weather, and at any distance, and
was never beaten. Even Crucifix, who ran twelve times unbeaten in twelve months
and won over ,£10,000 in public stakes alone, will not stand beside these famous four
years of untarnished excellence. Mr. Burrow's bay mare Catherina (by Whisker out
of Alecto] ran her first race in the Oaks of 1833, and her last in 1841 at Hednesford ;
but though it is true she competed one hundred and seventy-one times between these
dates, her victories numbered seventy-five, many of them over a distance of ground,
and several in heats. Some of her stout blood was in Kincsem, but infinitely
improved by the Newminster strain. As to the Ithuriel branch of Touchstone, which
comes to us through Musket, the Duke of Portland has done well to bring back the
strain from Australia in Carbine ; and Trenton is another sire of the same stock whose
produce are bound to be of service to the English Turf. The house of Orlando only
preserves the blood of Touchstone in 1902 in Diakka, Victor Wild, Xury and Golden
Crown. It will be remembered that 7bnchstom's direct line produced three Derby
winners in his sons Cotherstone, Orlando and Surplice ; three more in his grandsons
Teddington, Musjid and Hermit ; and seven more in his great-grandchildren Pretender,
Shotover, St. Blaise, George Frederick, Merry Hampton, Ayrshire, and Ladas ; it must
be obvious therefore that the blood is of the best, and deserves not only to be

'ECLIPSE" AND THE MODERN THOROUGHBRED.

315

kept in this country, but to be fairly treated, as what it used to be called nearly
sixty years ago, " the touchstone of merit."

It was said, not longer ago than the days of Admiral Rous, that eight animals of
the highest class were bred each year in England. We are now almost half a
century later, and if matters had been' improving, we should have had more "of the
highest class" in 1901 than was the case in 1854. But what are the facts ? The
total number of annual produce is indeed very greatly increased, but to find our
" eight animals of the highest class " we should have to look through no single season,

The Duke of Graf ton's " Penelope."

but a decade. One great reason, that we breed when both sires and dams are too
young, has already been suggested. But the opportunity to enforce it a little more
plainly is a good one. At least the probabilities of future excellence may be
accumulated, and I shall be very much mistaken if all the probabilities and most
of the facts as well are not against a pair of too-juvenile parents.

In the matter of sires, StockmeU and Voltaire were twenty-one when
Doncaster and Voltigeur were foaled. The sires of Blink Bonny, Fisherman
and Minting were twenty. I have already said that Dr. Syntax was

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

twenty-two when he sired Beeswing out of a sixteen-year-old mare, and that his
famous daughter raced till she was nine and bred Newminster when she was fifteen.
Orville was twenty-two when the Derby winner of 1823 was foaled ; Whalebone was
nineteen when he sired Sir Hercules. Vedette was eighteen when Galopin was born,
Harkaway and Touchstone and Ion were seventeen when King Tom, Newmimter,
and Wild Dayrell came into the world. Springfield, West Australian, Kingston and
Bay Middle/on were the offspring of sixteen-year-old sires. Both sire and dam of
Catherine Hayes were fifteen years old. As to the mares, Pocahonlas at twelve,
thirteen and fourteen bred in succession Stock-well, Rataplan and King Tom. Emma
produced Mo-werina (dam of West Australian} when she was nineteen. The dams of
Beadsman, Kettledrum, Blink Bonny, Flying Dutchman, Blrdcatcher and Voltigeur
were all ten years old and over. These last few names remind me that we are
indebted to one breeder, Mr. Theobald, of Stockwell, for both the extraordinary lines
of Touchstone and of Stockwell, for this gentleman had bought Camel, refused all
offers for him after Touchstone's victories, and later on bought The Baron, whom he
put to Pocahontas (by Glencoe out of Marpessa), with the result of Slockwell'vn. 1849
and Rataplan in 1850, while King Tom was produced by the same good mare in
1851 to Harkaway. None of these successful and fortunate results would, I venture
to think, have been attained if sires and dams of four and even three years old — as
are found nowadays — had then been used. The mature animal of either sex must
stand a greater chance of transmitting the best qualities to posterity.

Goino- back to the sons of Whalebone we find that Defence cannot be omitted from

o •*

the slightest sketch of the Eclipse blood. He was a brown foaled in 1824 out of
Defiance by Rubens, and was the sire of The Emperor, a chestnut foaled in 1841, who
won the Ascot Cup in 1844 and the Emperor's Plate in 1845. As the reputed sire
of Monarque, The Emperor must be considered the accepted grandsire of Gladiateur,
whose dam was a daughter of Gladiator by Partisan.

The line of Whalebone through Sir Hercules has been more prolific, for it
continues to Irish Birdcatcher, The Baron, Stockwell, Doncaster, Bend Or, Ormonde,
Orme and Flying Fox in direct succession. The pedigree of Birdcatcher deserves a
slightly more extended notice, for it is of great and complicated interest, and unites
the blood of Eclipse with that of Herod through the latter's two sons Tom Tug and
Chanticleer. Tom Tug begat Commodore, and his son, Irish Escape, begat Flight,
from whose union with Bob Borfy, son of Chanticleer and a daughter of Eclipse,
sprang Guiccioli. Bob Booty's dam, lerne, had a curious ancestry, in which occur the
names of Traveller, Hartley' s Blind Horse, the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin

ECLIPSE" AND THE MODERN '1HOROUGHBRKD.

3*7

Arabian, Bay Bolton, Cur-wen' 's Bay Barb, and others. It was out of Guiccioli that
Birdcatcher was bred by her union to Sir Hercules, the coal-black son of Whalebone,
a round-made horse of barely 15.2, with a small star on his forehead, a few grey
hairs at the butt of his tail, and his body ticked with grey hairs. In Ireland
Sir Hercules also begat Faugk a Ballagh (St. Leger and Cesarewitch, 1844), Maria,
Cruiskeen (Cesarewitch, 1838), and many others. In England his offspring were
Coronation (Derby, 1841), The Corsair, Gemma ai Vergy, Knight of the Shire,
Leamington, and others. He was twenty-eight when he begat Lifeboat, and thirty-one

(The figures cm the left are Trotter, Hardy, and Thomson,
in that order. Tod holds the bridle.)

The Earl of Darlington's "Muley Moloch" by
" John Bull " out of "Mistletoe " by "• PotSos."

when Sir John Shelley bred another Sir Hercules from him, which shows his great
vitality, inherited not merely from PotSos, but from his dam Peri, who was closely
inbred to Eclipse. There is no doubt that Guiccioli was a most appropriate mate for
him, as Birdcatcher proved certainly worthy to hand on the strain to The Baron and to
Stockwell. It is also in the blood of such modern sires as Bendigo, Brag, Isonomy,
Master Kildare, Melton, Minting, Robert the Devil, Saraband and Springfield. For
The Baron as well as his dam, the English Turf is indebted to Mr. Watts, of Jockey
Hall, Curragh, a Devonshire veterinary who settled in Ireland, and thoroughly
believed in the cross between Blacklock and Waxy. It happened that in 1837 there

3 1 8 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

died a Captain Gamble, who had brought over to Westmeath a mare called
Miss Pratt by Blacklock, out of Gadabout by Orville. She was bought at the auction
(as Mr. Joseph Osborne has recorded) by Mr. Watts for 120 guineas, and on her
arrival at the Curragh she was put to Economist, the sire of Harkaway, with the
result of breeding a big, fiddle-headed filly called Echidna. At only three years old
(for she was never raced) Echidna was put to Birdcatcher, and the result was The
Baron, a dark chestnut with a small star on his forehead, a white spot at the muzzle
and the rear hind-foot white. His greatest son Stockwell produced the winners of
the Derby of 1864, 1866 and 1873, of the Oaks in 1865, and of the St. Leger
in 1860, 1861, 1862, 1864, 1866 and 1867, besides many other winners. Of them all
Blair Athol, a chestnut with a white face, has been a prime favourite. His dam was
the celebrated Blink Bonny, by Melbourne, out of Queen Mary by Gladiator.

I have mentioned Economist in speaking of the breeding of Echidna. Like
The Colonel, he was a son of Whisker, and therefore brother to Whalebone, and, as the
sire of Harkaway, he founded the line which went on with King Tom, whose dam
was Pocahontas, dam of Stockwell. Ireland has again a good deal to say in the
breeding of Harkaway, for his grandam Miss Tooley was brought to Newry by
Mr. Jason Hassard, as the only cargo of the " Lively Nancy," which had sailed for
the Liverpool market with a load of bullocks. She won races in 1812 and 1813,
and in 1815 Lord Cremorne won the Mares' Plate at the Curragh with her and then
sent her to the stud, where she bred a filly to Nabocklish a son of Rugantino who
traces back in direct male line to Herod, through Tom Tug. Known only as the
Nabocklish mare, this filly was given to Mr. Thomas Ferguson, the crack steeple-
chaser, who called her Fanny Dawson (out of compliment to her first owner's family),
and in 1 834 she produced Harkaway, who was more of a pale yellow sorrel than a
chestnut, with a blaze face and his near fore-foot white to the fetlock. He stood
sixteen hands two, and was a horse of great power, especially in his quarters, gallop-
ing very wide behind. His excellence has often been thought to be as much
due to his being inbred to The Godolphin and to Herod as to the fact that his sire was
great-great-grandson of Eclipse in the direct male line.

The PotSos branch of Eclipse having been thus sketched out, it is time to turn to
his other son King Fergus, a chestnut foaled in 1775, out of Creeping Polly by Sir
Ralph Gore's famous Othello (1743), a stallion as well known at the Curragh as at
Newmarket, and the son of a Tartar mare. Mated with a mare by Herod (out of
Pyrrha by Matcheni) King Fergus got the bay Benningbrough (St. Leger, 1794),
who produced another bay, Orville out of Evelina by Highflyer. Orville1 s lungs and

320 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

courage seemed inexhaustible. He once tied up Haphazard 'in a four-mile trial at
Lewes at four o'clock in the morning, and won the King's Plate that afternoon after a
punishing race with Walton. He was a difficult beast to ride, being rather inanimate
and dead-skinned, with something of the look of a coach-horse, and he stood very
much over on one knee. One of his sons was Andrew, to whom Belvoir owed its
Derby winner Cad/and. Through Muley Moloch, the beautiful Alice Hawthorn
traced back to him, a mare who was very much inbred to the Darley Arabian. From
his son Muley came Little Wonder (Derby, 1840), a brilliant bay of 14 hands 3 inches.
But far the best of Orvilles stock was Emilius (a Derby winner like his brother
Octaviu^), who was a bay horse out of Emily by Stamford by Sir Peter, and stood
about 15 hands 2 inches, with an almost faultless symmetry of build, but a plain head
like his sire. All his get were good-looking, and from Recovery, the handsomest, was
modelled the horse for the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington. Two sons
of Emilius, Priam and Plenipotentiary (a rich chestnut, over 15 hands 2 inches), were
Derby winners ; his daughter Oxygen won the Oaks ; his son Mango won the St.
Leger. Priam (foaled in 1827) was a bay from Cressida, sister to Sir Charles
Bunbury's famous Eleanor by Whiskey, and among his daughters were Miss Lefty,
Industry and Crucifix, all winners of the Oaks, the latter having secured both Two
Thousand and One Thousand as well. Her pedigree goes back to the Darley
Arabian through Marske, and through Flora to King Fergus, to whose son Hamble-
tonian I must now turn.

This magnificent bay, winner of the St. Leger of 1795, was out of a Highflyer
mare, her dam Monimia by Matchem. His best sons were Whit clock and the light
grey Camillus through whom came Rowton and Virago. IVIiitelock's great son was
Blacklock (his dam by Coriander, a son of PotSos], a rather plain and coarse animal,
with astride that required half-a-mile to settle it, and an ugly head. But he had in
him four strains of Eclipse, four of Herod, two of Matchem and four of Cade, and at
the stud this wonderful blend of blood soon showed its excellence, and is proving its
vigour still in St. Simon, son of Galopin. BlacklocK S best sons were Velocipede,
Voltaire, Brutandorf, all of whom showed great depth from withers to shoulder-
points, muscular neck, and immense roundness of rib from the spine. Velocipede (1825)
was a chestnut, his dam (a half-sister to Camarine) was by Junipers, son of Whiskey.
He had a rough Roman head with a white blaze and a flesh-coloured nose, and first
went to the stud at Ainderby under the Hambleton hills. He sired Amato, winner of
the Derby of 1838, and Queen of Trumps, a slashing brown who won the Oaks and
St. Leger of 1835, her dam by Castrel. Brutandorf was the son of Mandane (by

"ECLIPSE" AND THE MODERN THOROUGHBRED. 321

PotSos], and was both gluttonous and thick-fleshed, and got splendid coachers. But
his two sons Physician and Hetnian Platoff, the latter out of a Comus mare, were better ;
and it was by the latter that Cossack, a chestnut from a Priam mare, was sired, who
won the Derby of 1847. Voltaire was a brown, with a fine barrel and a ringbone on
the off fore-foot, foaled in 1826 out of a Phantom mare, with Matchem blood in him. He
sired Charles XII. who won the St Leger after a dead heat with Euclid, son of
Emilius ; Semiseria, the quickest of all his get, who showed her speed not only by
beating The Cure at Newmarket, but by her famous match with Queen of the Gipsies;
and Voltigcur (his dam Martha Lynn by a son of Cation], who had all the Blacklock
build in ribs and neck, as Sir Edwin Landseer's painting of him (with his cat) very
clearly shows ; he defeated the unbeaten Flying Dutchman for the Doncaster Cup.
The best of his get were Vedette, Buckstone and Skirmisher.

Harking back again to Eclipse we find two more of his sons still left to deal with,
Mercury and 'Joe Andrews. Mercury was from Colonel O' Kelly's famous Old Tartar
mare, dam of Jtipiter, Volunteer and Queen Mab, and great-grand-daughter of the
Byerly Turk, her dam by a grandson of the Godolphin Arabian. He was the sire of
Gohanna who was, like Waxy, out of a Herod mare, but was far less stylish, and got
great power on a short leg with an average of 15 hands i inch, broad foreheads, and
a big eye. By Gohanna was the bay Golumpus foaled in 1802 from a Woodpecker
mare, her dam by Trenlham. His son Cation, another bay (1809), was the first foal
of Lucy Gray ; he was a stout, well-seasoned horse with capital legs, and was sire of
Mulatto, of Mundig (out of Emma by Whisker}, of Tarrare, of Royal Oak (sire of
Slane), and of Princess. Mulatto won the famous Doncaster Cup race at which Fleur-
de-Lys, Mcmnon, Actceon, Long-waist, and Tarrare were in the field.

The bay Joe Andrews (originally named Dennis-oh /) was the sire of Dick
Andrews (1794), a long, lean horse (from a Highflyer mare), with a head full of
character, who gave Tramp and Altisidora to the English Turf. Tramp, a good
level bay of 15.2, was foaled in 1810 from a Golianna mare, and was wonderful at
four miles. At York, on May I7th, 1814, when the property of Mr. Watts, he beat
Sir W. Maxwell's grey horse Viscount by Stamford (five years, 8st. ylbs., W. Peirse),
when he was four years old (yst. I2lbs., J. Jackson), for the Gold Cup at York, when
the betting was 2 to i on Viscount for the three-mile race. At the August meeting,
over the same course, his sister, Altisidora, won for Mr. Watts a match against Lord
Fitzwilliam's b.c. Camelopard for 500 guineas, two miles, Sst. 2lbs., and another
race of the same distance (which she completed in 4 min. 43 sec.) against Cotton,
Langold (by Stamford}, and Georgiana (by Selim), both when she was a four-year-

VOL. II. U U

322

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

old. In the Subscription Purse for four-year-olds, 8st. ylbs., four miles, Sir Mark
Sykes's Prime Minister by Sancho just beat Tramp, after a splendid struggle, in
8 min. 19 sec., amid the greatest excitement. Tramp was the sire of Si. Giles and
Dangerous (Derby, 1832 and 1833), of Barefoot (St. Leger, 1823), of Lottery, the
best of his year, a brown, foaled in 1826 from Mandane by PotSos, and the sire of
Sheet Anchor, through whom came Weatherbit. Lottery had a good deal of the
temper of Tramp's get, but was a very bloodlike horse ; Liverpool (another Tramp
colt out of a Whisker mare) was, on the contrary, light in the fore-legs, ragged in the
hips, and thick in his jowl, but he got Lanercost from Otis (by a son of Buzzard}, who
won the Cambridgeshire of 1839, against Hetman Plat off. His first year's produce
was Van Tromp (St. Leger, 1847), War Eagle, and Ellerdale. Then came Catherine
Hayes (Oaks, 1853), Loupgarou, Colsterdale, and others.

Tramp's great-grandson, Weatherbit, was a brown foaled in 1842 from Miss
Letty by Priam, her dam by Orville. He was a good-looking horse, with a level
top, high quarters, and good hocks. He was the sire of Bel Demonio, of Bismarck,
and of Beadsman (from Mendicant by Touchstone), who, in turn, begot Blue Gown
(Derby, 1868) and Pero Gomez (St. Leger, 1869).

This is indeed a fine (though incomplete) list of descendants from the splendid
animal who died in 1789, and was born in " the year of the great eclipse." It would
have consoled the mourners at his death had they been able to foresee it. In his
descendants Eclipse still lives, and to them, and their descendants in turn, no better
motto can be wished than was given to the founders of Old Rome : " Pugnent
ipsique nepotesque." May they have many a good race, and may we be there to see !

The Betting Post in 1789.
(The veteran on the cob is Col. O' Kelly, owner of "Eclipse.")

CHAPTER XIII.

RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

" SURE life's but a race where each man runs his best ;
If distanced or thrown a bad match is the jest ;
Each strives to be foremost and get the first in,
For he is but a bubble who don't wish to win.

A statesman starts eager to get to the post

Where he who can jockey his rival gains most

The world may be properly called the Round Course
Where sweetness and management often beats force.
A match that's made well here makes Noblemen smile,
When a feather beats weight o'er the Abingdon Mile."

r I "'HE sporting poet who indited the verses which I have placed at the head of
this chapter had keenly appreciated, in 1776, the large share which the Turf
had taken in the social and political life of the time. I have sketched in earlier
pages of this volume a few of the more prominent men and women who were as
distinguished in one direction as they were in the other ; and I have indicated the
most famous of the horses which from this period onwards have influenced the
fortunes of every racecourse in the world. But before the nineteenth century begins
it remains for me to name a few more of those thoroughbreds who were by no
means less interesting to contemporary owners because their future influence upon
posterity has not been so striking as in the case of other animals, and I must also fill
in a little more of the light and shade in the picture of the sportsman's life which
I am endeavouring to place before my readers. This is not a complete chronicle of
Racing. Nothing short of a small library could hold that. But it is an attempt to
select a few typical instances out of a very large number, whict. may serve as a basis
for certain generalisations, and may be verified from the more extended records
that are open to the investigations of all. It seems to me that just as Racing and
all the strength of its fiery impulses and ambitions have been too often omitted from
previous characterisations both of eras and of men, so the influence of these men them-

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

selves, and of their other varied pursuits and interests, have been to some extent
neglected in former accounts of the English Turf which have gone far more deeply
into its many technical details. We live ourselves in a whirl of complicated occur-
rences, without often recognising the broad tendencies of the main stream on which
we float. To us a few details of contemporary interest shine with vivid clearness as
the turning points of our individual career, in Racing or in any other form of active
life. But it is quite probable that these details have no commanding influence upon
the general trend of that particular occupation considered as a whole ; and in the
same way I am endeavouring now rather to depict the movement of the older periods,
as we can value them by the light of a century's added knowledge, than to record

every fact in a vast mass
of ancient chronicles
which are in many
cases as dead as the
men who gave them
birth.

But it would be
obviously as improper
to leave the eighteenth
century with the sug-
gestion that Matchem,
Herod, Eclipse, and
their nearest relations
were the only horses
worth mentioning, as

it would be to assert that horses were the only things which their owners
cared about. Those who have done me the honour of following my illus-
trations with a seeing eye, will have noticed long ago that an improvement
in the build of the horses has by this time made its appearance, which is not merely
the result of a great increase in the artistic skill with which they are represented.
It will be worth while, for instance, to compare such animals of a slightly older date,
as Shapeless, Chatsworth, Martin (by Cade], Little Driver, Cato, Sportlcy (a trio foaled
in 1 748), or Aaron, not perhaps with such an example as Looby (who seems a survival
of an older epoch), or with Mr. Thomas Foley's Firctailby Squirrel (1770), or even
with Mr. Ayrton's Bay Malton (by Sampson], but with such evidently more highly
developed animals as Gimcrack, Goldfmder, or Pumpkin.

By permission of Sir Walter Gilbey.

"Looby" at full stretch.

RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

325

•

" The sweetest little horse that ever was ! " exclaimed Lady Sarah Bunbury,
when she saw Gimcrack win his race, and forgot all about the new Ministry ; and
" the sweetest little horse " he has been to every lover of the Turf from that day to
this, not only because a Club was founded nine years after his birth to keep his
memory green, but for his own sake and for the sake of the memories that have
gathered round his name from 1769 to the present year of grace. Gimcrack, a grey
colt, was bred by Mr. Gideon Elliott, of Murrell Green, Hants, in 1760, and was got
by Cripple — Miss Elliott, by Grisewood's Partner (a grey horse, son of Partner —
Mutton's Grey Barb Marc, and back to Woodcock}, her dam by Partner— Grey
Brochlesby, with a strain of the Lister Turk through the Hobby Mure. Cripple was
got by the Godolpliin
Arabian out of Godol-
pliin Blossom, a daughter
of the famous grey horse
Crab, son of the A/cock
Arabian, dam by F lying
Cluldcrs out of Miss Bel-
voir, who had strains of
the Brownlono Turk, the
Leeds Arabian, and the
Old Morocco Mare. This
is high-class breeding,
though an unusual
blend, and neither in
size nor colour would
Gimcrack have satisfied the connoisseurs of a later day. Gustavus and
Frederick, who won the Derby in 1821 and 1829, were both greys; Mr.
Elmore's Grimaldi, who died on the post in the St. Alban's steeplechase of March,
1830, was a grey ; and so was Chanticleer, as late as 1848 ; but the predominance of
the bays soon asserted itself, after winning sixteen Derbys and seventeen St. Legers
between 1825 and 1855 ; and after it chestnuts and browns seem in that order to be
the usual colours for a good one. There was, however, nothing much amiss with a
horse which could win twenty-seven out of his thirty-five races for very various
owners. Gimcrack first faced the starter at Epsom on May 31, 1764, and won a
^50 Plate, two-mile heats, in a field of six, distancing three of his competitors. At
Guildforcl, Winchester, Bedford, Barnet, Reading, and Burford, he won similar plates

Mr. WentwortK 's "Ckatsworth"
by "Blank:'1

326

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

for his first owner, Mr. Green, and was then bought by Mr. Wildman, the purchaser
of Eclipse. For him he beat Prophet, Treasure, and another, over the last four miles
of the Beacon Course, and was then bought by Lord Bolingbroke, under whose
colours he beat Mr. Panton's Rocket by Blank, in a match for a thousand guineas,
B.C., 7st. 4.1bs., on the same day when another of Blanks sons (Antinons) was being
beaten by Herod. In the next July Lord Bolingbroke was equally successful with
him against Lord Lowther's Ascham by Regulus over the same distance, but was
unable to give Lord Rockingham's Bay Malton seven pounds and a beating, though

By permission of H.R.H. Prince Christian. Mr. Benjamin Rogers' "Aaron."

Drawn and engraved from life liy T. Burford.

he gave no less than twenty-one pounds to the Duke of Cumberland's Drone by
Young Cade. These perpetual successes over long distances induced Count Laura-
guais to buy Gtmcrack and take him to France in order to accept a wager that no
horse could travel 22^ miles in the hour, which the gallant little grey promptly won
for him, and, when they both returned to England, went on winning under his
French owner's colours at Wisbech, Ascot Heath, Maryborough, and Wells, but
was beaten over the Round Course by the Duke of Kingston's Tyrant, and at
Wantage by Major Brereton's Otterley (another grey), and at Odsey by Tortoise, a son
of Snap. In 1768 he picked up his form again, and scored more victories at Epsom,

RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

327

at Ascot (four-mile heats), and Salisbury (four-mile heats), after which he was
bought by Sir Charles Bunbury, and though defeated by the Duke of Grafton's
Guardian in a race from the Ditch In, he signalised his return to British
ownership by beating a field of six in two heats of four miles for the Odsey ,£50
Plate. In 1769 Gimcrack showed a still greater appreciation for his famous owner
at Newmarket in the Spring, by beating Hermione and Amazon, Baler by Blank,
Cardinal Puff, Bay Malton, and many others. He now reached the legitimate goal
of every good horse's ambition in those days, and was bought by Lord Grosvenor
for 1,200 guineas, promptly showing his approval of the transaction by beating Lord
Rockingham's Jacko over the Beacon Course. His first attempt on the Knavesmire
at York was not so success-
ful as usual, for, on August
24, 1769, he was placed
third(ridden byjohn Pratt,
gst., four miles) to Sir L
Dundas's Chatsworth by
Blank (C. Dawson), and
Mr. Wentworth's Tortoise
(L. Jewison),with Morisoick
Ball, Bay Malton, and All
Fours behind him, after a
close race. In 1770 he won
the Whip at Newmarket,
and it should be remem-
bered that all this excel-
lence was packed into a fraction over fourteen hands. In 177 1 he had his revenge over
Sir Charles Bunbury's Bellario, by beating him over the Round Course, in the good
company of Lord March's Sportsman, Lord Bolingbroke's CJialfont^ord Orford's J%w/>,
Lord Farnham's Guardian, Lord Rockingham's Tantrum, Mr. Wentworth's Myrmidon,
and Mr. Cox's Teetotum. Thinking this a good enough bouquet to finish with,
Gimcrack now left the Turf for the amenities of the Eaton stud-farm. I should like
here to speak also of the Duke of Cleveland's Dainty Davy, a small bay son of
Traveller, who won the first Gold Cup at Richmond in 1759, and beat Lord
Rockingham's Scrub at York, in two four-mile heats, in 1760 ; but I must pass on to
that famous son of Snap, Mr. Jenison Shafto's good bay Goldfaider (his dam by

By permission of H.K.H. Prince Christian.

" Sport ley" (1748).

RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

329

Blank), who won a sweepstake of 200 guineas at the First Spring Meeting of 1768.
He possessed such good speed and power that he was never beat, and never paid
forfeit ; but it must be added that he broke down in his exercise in 17/0, just before
he was about to meet Eclipse for the King's Plate. He was the sire of many good
horses at Nuttall Temple, near Nottingham, where he stood for Sir Charles Sedley,
who bought him in 1771 for 1,350 guineas.

Another celebrated horse of the same period was Mr. Foley's Firetail, bred in 1769
by the Earl of Orford, by Squirrel out of Jctt, a daughter of Othello, her dam by

1 ' ' '•• ' -. --, -..„;;

By permission of Sir Walter Gilbey.

"Gohl finder."

Bartletfs CJiilders. At the Spring Meeting of 1773 he beat Pumpkin (Sst. R.M.
500 guineas) in what is said by Mr. J. C. Whyte to have been the extraordinary time
of i minute \\ seconds. Pumpkin himself was a chestnut, by Matchem, out of his
breeder Mr. Pratt's famous Old Squirt Marc, and was also sold to Mr. Foley. His
first race was one of his best, when he beat Mr. Ogilvey's Denmark, in 1772, Ditch In,
500 guineas, by half-a-neck. Over the same Course he was also victorious over
Firetail and Conductor. In 1776 he beat Mambrino and Trent ham in a sweepstakes
of 200 guineas each, B.C., and completed a record of sixteen successes out of twenty-
four starts. Stubbs painted him several times, being very fond of his characteristic
VOL. n. x x

"£•

S

RACING AT '1 HE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

331

head and face, which are quite reminiscent of Eclipse, and there are good pictures
of him at Cumberland Lodge and at the Durdans. Of Mambrino \ reproduce here
a highly finished painting by the same artist, from Eaton, evidently the original of the
engraving in my first volume. He was a grey like Gimcrack, bred in 1768 by Mr.
John Atkinson of Scholes, near Leeds, a grandson of Sampson, by Engineer, out of
the Cade mare, and was sold to Lord Grosvenor. He won the King's Plate at New-
market in 1775, and at the Second Spring Meeting he beat Trentham for the Jockey
Club Plate, B.C., after running a dead heat and starting again. In 1777 he was
matched against Shark (by Marsh) for the Whip, and in that year was advertised as a

stallion in the

,~

good company of
Sweetbriar, Gim-
crack, and Sweet
William, at Ox-
croft Farm, near
Balsham. He
was the sire of
Messenger, who
was imported
into the United
States, where he
founded a dis-
tinguished line of
trotting horses.

Trentham is not "Mambrino."

merely famous for the interest Charles James Fox had in him, for he was one of the
best horses of his clay, as is set forth in the eulogium beneath the print of him that
was done by G. D. Stubbs, after the picture by Stubbs, now in the possession of Lord
Cobham at Hagley Hall. " The terrible horse Trentham, late the property of Charles
Ogilvy, Esq. He won eleven times without loosing a match, he beat Bellario, Mcta-
physian and Young Eclipse, and many more of the most capital Horses in England, he
is only 5 years old, and was sold to Patrick Blake, Esq., for fifteen hundred and
seventy-five pounds. Trentham was got by the famous horse Sweepstakes who covers
at Moor Park in Hertfordshire, at 20 guineas a mare and 5 shgs. the groom, published
in 1772, by Rob. Sayer, 53, Fleet Street." This fine bay, the first son of Miss

332

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

South, won ,£8,450 besides two Jockey Club Plates, and stood at Lord Egremont's
Stud at Petworth. Lord Ossory's Dorimant by Otho (1772) and the Prince of Wales's
Anvil by Herod (1777) were also good horses of the time, and the latter beat PotSos
and Diomed. Stubb's painting at the Durdans shows Anvil as a dark bay with a high
crest, black legs, mane and long tail, with a star on his forehead.

It may be interesting to draw attention here to a group of the sons of Eclipse, who
were all running about this time. Colonel Thornton's Jupiter was an especially fine
one. The picture of him by Stubbs at Elsenham Hall shows his chestnut coat changing

By permission of H.R.H. Prince Christian. Sl7 F. Poole's " Satellite " by " Eclipse."

to bright cream, with black mane, full bushy tail, light hoofs, and white on his off
hind fetlock. I reproduce the engraving done from this original. The painting of
Dungannon is also preserved at the Durdans, as a bright bay with black legs, and the
two hind fetlocks white. Soldier, Phosphorus, and Satellite were other examples of
the direct Eclipse blood, whose lines will be interesting to the breeder for that reason.
Volunteer was a chestnut son of the famous Old Tartar Mare foaled in 1 780. He beat
Saltram (by Oscar) who afterwards won the Derby, and of whom there is a magnificent
picture by Garrard at Windsor Castle, which is given in these pages by His Majesty's
gracious permission.

»

RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

333

Among the fiercest opponents of the Eclipse stock were, of course, the offspring of
Highflyer, and I reproduce a portrait of his bay son Skyscraper, out of Everlasting
by Eclipse, as an interesting example of the blend of the bloods, bred by the Duke of
Bedford in 1786, and winner of the Derby in 1789. There is a good painting of him
by Sartorius at the Durdans, and a capital picture of Vestris (1780), by the same
artist, hangs at Cumberland Lodge. Another example of the son of an Eclipse mare
is John Bull (by Fortitude], who won the Derby for Lord Grosvenor in 1789.
Sartorius has also left a fine painting (also in Lord Rosebery's collection) of the Duke

By permission of H.R.H. Prince Christian.

" Vestris" (1780).

of Bedford's Grey Diomed who beat the Prince of Wales's Traveller, 8st. 7lbs., B.C.,
500 guineas, at the Second Spring Meeting of 1790. But a capital instance of the
rivalry between the Tattersall and the O' Kelly factions is the match depicted by
Sartorius in the same collection between the same Traveller (by Highflyer) and Lord
Grosvenor's Meteor by Eclipse, who was beaten on almost exactly the same terms at
about the same date, so His Royal Highness saved his money. A good example of
the son of a Matchem mare is Mr. Wilson's Creeper by Tandem, who combined the
blood of the Godolphin Arabian and the Belgrade Turk. He was foaled in 1786 and

RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

335

was the property of the Prince of Wales, as was Baronet, who beat Mr. Barton's
Express and seventeen others for the Oaklands Stakes at Ascot, on June 28, 1791,
winning 2,950 guineas, besides a number of very large bets, in a crowd of some forty
thousand persons, after which the race was transferred to Newmarket.

In the last decade before the eighteenth century ende'd I have chosen as typical
examples, Baronet, Haphazard, Hambletonian and Diamond, Ambrosia, Penelope,
and Eleanor, not perhaps as the best or the most famous of their time, but
as those who best exhibit in their shape or peculiarities some of the effects of the

" Baronet.''

breeding of that day. In another chapter I shall deal with early years of the
St. Leger, the Derby, and the Oaks, but there was many a good race on the English
Turf before a single fixture had become "classic," and by this time many an owner
too, who, far from having royal blood in his veins, had not even a handle to his
name. Wildman and O'Kelly are two instances that will at once occur to the readers
of these last pages, and there are others too. The earliest examples of " warning
off" are provided by Messrs. Quick and Castle. Dick England was another
notorious ruffian of the period, while at Jack Munday's Coffee House in the Strand
you could find many more like Jack Tetherington, Bob Weir, or Tom Hull. The

336

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

Jockey Club itself had several commoners, as we have seen, among its most cherished
members, like Mr. John Pratt of Askrigg, part of whose " epitaph " is worth
recording, even without the splendour of the original type. It runs as follows : —

"A character so eccentric, so variable, so valuable, astonished the age he lived in. Though small
his patrimony, yet, assisted by that and his own genius, he for upwards of thirty years supported all the
hospitality of an Ancient Baron. The excellent qualities of his heart were eminently evinced by his
bounty to the poor, his sympathetic feeling for distress and his charity for all mankind. Various and
wonderful were the means which enabled him with unsullied reputation to support his course of life in
which he saw and experienced many Trials and many vicissitudes of fortune, and though often hard
pressed, whipped and spurred by that jockey necessity, he never swerved out of the course of Honour."

Here follows a long and humorous recitation of the various horses he owned,
which ends as follows :—

"Though never famed for gallantry, yet he had in keeping, at different periods, a Virgin, a

Maiden, an Orange
Girl, and a Ballad
Singer, besides
several Misses, to all
of whom his attach-
ment was notorious ;
and, what is still
more a Paradox,
though he had no
issue by his lawful
wife, yet the nu-
merous progeny and
quick abilities of
these very females
proved to him a source
of supply. With all
his seeming peculi-
arities and foibles he
retained his Purity

till a few days before his death, when the great Camden (afterwards Rockinghani) spread the fame
thereof so extensively as to attract even the notice of his Prince, who thought it no diminution of
Royalty to obtain so valuable an acquisition by purchase, and though he parted with his Purity at a
great price, yet his honour and good name remained untarnished to the end of his life."

As the owner of Rcgulus, Mr. Martindalc entirely eclipsed his previous reputation
as a saddler. Two of the early St. Legers were won by an ex-stable boy, Mr.
Hutchinson, with Young Traveller and Beningbrough, and it was he — as I mentioned
in the last volume — who bred that other great winner Hambletonian, a bay grandson
of Eclipse by King Fergus out of Grey Highflyer. He was foaled in 1792, and did
splendidly as a three-year-old for Sir Charles Turner. In 1796 he repeated his
victory for the Gold Cup at Doncaster. His most famous match was one more case of
rivalry between the two fashionable sires, for Diamond was a brown son of Highflyer

By permission of Sir Waller Gilbey.

" Hamblctnnian " being rubbed down
after his race with " Diamond."

-,

s

3 s

~ "S

VOL. II.

Y y

338

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

of the same age, who beat Hermione for the King's Plate at Newmarket in 1797.
It was at the Newmarket Craven Meeting of 1799 that Sir Harry Vane-Tempest
matched Hambletonian (with Frank Buckle in the saddle) against Mr. Joseph Cook-
son's Diamond (Dennis FitzPatrick up, 8st.) for three thousand guineas over the
Beacon Course. Buckle (at 8st. 3lbs.), who was considerably cooler-headed at
the crisis than his employer, managed to gain some ground between the
Ditch and the Turn of the Lands, which compensated for the pace ol
the smaller horse up the hill, and after a rousing finish, which Sartorius has

The Oat lands Sweepstakes at Ascot.

brilliantly depicted, the Eclipse blood just asserted its superiority by a head. A
fine painting by Stubbs of this stout-hearted horse, being rubbed down after that
punishing race, is now in the possession of Lord Londonderry at Wynyard Park, and
as the canvas measures no less than 13 feet by 8, I have chosen it as a good
example of the typical points of a racer whose blood is in most of the best pedigrees
to-day. My illustration is from the engraving by J. B. Pratt. The starter gave the
signal between one and two o'clock on the 25th of March, and the St. Leger winner
held the lead until Diamond challenged in the last half-mile, and from then on
both horses seem to have been cruelly punished, Hambletonian being only just lifted

RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

339

in ahead by Buckle's splendid riding in the last few strides. The distance is said
to have been done in "about eight minutes and a-half," and the Newmarket people
lost fairly heavily, though the betting varied from six to four on Hambletonian to
evens. Sir Harry Vane-Tempest determined never to race him again.

It was not every owner who thus remembered that his favourite thoroughbred
was not a mere machine for making money. I fear, in fact, that the advance of the
Turf has always been due as much to gambling as to any other single motive, and
the clubs of St. James's Street still contain records of those times, which throw an
astonishing light on the way men betted upon everything. They betted on the
longevity of their own fathers ; on the probability, of Mademoiselle Heinel dancing
at the opera ; on Thurlow
getting a tellership of the
Exchequer for his son ;
on the total of the audi-
ence at the Pantheon ;
five guineas down to re-
ceive one hundred if the
Duke of Oueensberry dies
before half an hour after
five in the afternoon of
June. 27, 1773 ; a hundred
guineas that Lord Derby
does not see the next
general election ; heavy
wagers that Dr. Dodd
would be executed within two months, that he would commit suicide,
that he would use a pistol for his final act. Politics, of course, opened
a large field for a speculation which ranged the compass of existence. Five
hundred guineas to ten were laid that none of the Cabinet would be beheaded by
that day three years, and the melancholy contingency found a hearty backer even in
days when "pro- Boers" were neither born nor thought of. But cards offered the
easiest opportunity of all. Walpole used to say that the things best worth finding
were the longitude, the philosopher's stone, the Duchess of Kingston's first marriage
certificate, the missing books of Livy, and all that Charles James Fox had lost.
The atmosphere seemed charged with prodigality. Five thousand pounds were

By permission of Mr. Somervillc Tattersall.

Mr. Lcnvther's '•'•Ambrosia'''' by
" Sir Peter Teazle."

34°

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

staked on a single card at Faro, and ,£70,000 changed hands in a single evening.
General Scott made a fortune at cards, and married one of his daughters to Canning
and the other to the Duke of Portland, father of Lord George Bentinck. Pitt himself
was a partner in a Faro- Bank at Goosetree's. Gilray's caricatures are full of terrible
satire on the fashionable vice against which even Lord Kenyon's fulminations
seemed powerless. " At some of our first boarding schools," says " The Times " for
November 2, 1797, "the fair pupils are now taught to play whist and casino. . . .
At a boarding school at Moorfields the mistress complains that she is unable to teach
her scholars either whist or pharo." Panton Street, near the Haymarket, records the
winnings of a gambler, who was as famous in the card-room as we have found him on

the Turf. The organisa-
tion of a gambling-
house of the period is
easily reconstructed.
First came the Com-
missioner, who audited
the accounts with a
Director under him to
superintend the rooms,
and an Operator to deal
cards. Then there were
Croupiers who gathered
money for the bank;
An E.o. Table. Puffs to decoy the

players ; a Clerk to check the Puffs ; a Flasher to swear the bank was broke ; a Dunner
to get losses out of needy gentlemen ; a Captain to fight any discontented player ; a
sharp Attorney to draw up any necessary deeds whenever wanted ; waiters for the
candles and refreshments ; ushers to conduct the company up and down ; runners who
got half-a-guinea every time they warned the porter that there were constables with-
out ; and a whole gang of unattached ruffians in the shape of linkboys, coachmen, chair-
men, drawers, common bail affidavit men, and bravoes of the lowest type. Hogarth
adds a characteristic touch in the highwayman, whose pistols peep out of his pocket,
waiting by the fireside till the heaviest winner goes, so that he may recoup his own
losses in the speediest fashion.

Of the numberless queer wagers made that were based on a certain degree of

RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

341

skill, I have no space to speak. "Old O." was great at discovering and winning

them. He once backed his man to trundle a wheel faster than a certain speedy

barber of Oxford Street could run the same distance unencumbered ; and as the

terms of the bet specified that one of His Grace's own carriage- wheels must be

employed, he had a long platform built, so that the axle might come to exactly the

right height required by his performer, and won the bet. When he was Lord

March, Messrs. Theobald Taafe and Andrew Sprowle were so unwise as to bet that

he and Lord Eglinton would not carry one person on a carriage with four running

wheels and four horses nineteen miles

in one hour. Whereupon Lord

March got Mr. Wright to build him

a carriage weighing only 24 stone,

including the postilion it carried, with

a box seat of velvet hung with straps,

and very thin leather harness covered

with silk. The wheels had boxes

built above them, which dropped oil

gently on the axles, and the traces

were so arranged that they would run

back on springs instead of hanging

slack. The two leaders, ridden at

8st., were Mr. Greville's Tawney and

Mr. Stamford's Roderick Random.

The wheelers (/st.) were the Duke

of Hamilton's Chance and Peeper.

The course, on Newmarket Heath,

lay between the Warren and the Rubbing Houses, through the Running Gap to the

right, and three times round a circle of four miles, and back to the start. Lord March

won easily, for the distance was done in 53 minutes 27 seconds. When the Prince of

Wales was at Brighton, a number of less orthodox wagers were brought off, in which

athletic ladies took a prominent part ; or Tom Onslow drove his phaeton and four

at a gallop twenty times through the gates of Grove House ; or "a military gentleman,

ridden by a jockey weighing 7st. slbs., booted and spurred, ran with a fat bullock

unmounted across the Steyne for a hundred guineas," and won them easily against

odds of four and five to one, about the same time as "Cripplegate" Barrymore rode a

The Trimmed Cock.

342

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

By Henry Alken (1821).

Fashionable Cockfigkting.

horse upstairs to the
topmost room in Mrs.
FitzHerbert's house,
and had to have it
dragged down again
by the main force of
two blacksmiths, so
much did the artful
animal appear to
relish its new quarters.
The cock-fighting
at which Mr. Tre-
gonwell Frampton
proved so successful,

lasted for nearly a century and a-half after his days as a fashionable sport. As late

as 1830, a room in Westminster, where the Privy Council held their sittings, was

commonly called "the cockpit" (in Greville's Memoirs, and in "The Times" for

January 29, 1801), because it was on the site where Charles II. had often watched

a main at Whitehall ; and in nearly every Race Course of the eighteenth century the

cockpit was as essential an attraction as the E.O. Tables. All bone and muscle ;

with his large, quick eye, his big and crooked beak, the gamecock seemed built by

Nature for a fight, and

animated by an almost

unique passion for the

extermination of the

males of his own

species. Arming him

with spurs only ended

quicker what might

otherwise have been a

cruelly protracted

struggle ; the pugilist,

in fact, became a

swordsman. Special

breeds were eagerly

By Henry A Iken (1821).

The Beauties of Bull-baiting.

RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

343

sought after; "Spangles," as the parti-coloured birds were called, were never found
to be so high-spirited, so good in feather, blood, or heel, as the complete blackreds.
Consummate art was needed in feeding up the champions for a three days' battle, or
in handling and setting the birds at the moment of the contest. Far less were the
excuses for that much more ignoble form of " sport " known as bull-baiting. But this,
too, lasted much too long in English country-life, and it may perhaps be put down to
the credit of the Turf that many found a substitute in horse-racing for the cruelties
and brutalities of the bull-ring.

As the organisation of racing went on, we find King's Plates established in many
places which might otherwise have satisfied the universal gambling instinct of the
people with much
less creditable and
useful attractions. I
have reproduced an
incident that hap-
pened at the Lincoln
Meeting in 1797.
There were also
King's Plates at New-
market, Salisbury,
Ipswich, Guildford,
Nottingham, Win-
chester, York, Rich-
mond (Yorkshire),
Lewes, Canterbury, Lichfield, Newcastle, Bradford, Carlisle, Ascot, and War-
wick. Though Yorkshire was easily first in the number of its race meetings,
Cambridgeshire could boast of four at least in Newmarket alone, Suffolk
had four, and there was scarcely a county that was not patronised at least
once in the year, except Devonshire and Cornwall. But it was naturally at
Newmarket, Ascot, Doncaster, or Epsom that were to be seen most often the purple
waistcoat with the gold-trimmed scarlet sleeves of the Prince of Wales, the purple
and gold of the Duke of York, the sky-blue of the Duke of Grafton, or the deep red
of the Duke of Oueensberry. With them was the Earl of Derby, who married Miss
Farren, the actress whose " Lady Teazle " in Sheridan's brilliant comedy had
stormed the footlights of the town. He was the founder of the famous race that

By permission of Mr.
Somerville Tattersall.

'Hornpipe" leu ping over " Pepper pot" and the
Farmer's Son, at Lincoln Races, Sept. 1797.

".*

'

rren and the Earl of Derby.

RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

345

\

bears his name, and he won it in 1787 with Sir Peter Teazle, the appropriate omen
of his wedding. The first race was won by Sir Charles Bunbury's Diomed (by
Florizel out of a Spectator mare going back to Flying ChilJers), who beat Captain
CT Kelly and seven others, and conferred the highest honours of the Turf upon the
pink and white stripes and black cap. Sir Joshua Reynolds has been kinder to the
first winner of the Derby than Gilray was to its founder ; nor has the famous Duke
of Bedford, another prominent racing man of the time, got off much better at the
hands of the vigorous caricaturist, who
spared nobody, and was probably much
more true to nature than is sometimes
imagined.

With the advent of the classic races
the whole machinery of the Turf began
to be organised at its regular head-
quarters, and already the names that are
still familiar to all racegoers begin to
appear in the places that have known
them so honourably and so long. Mr.
James Weatherby was keeper of the
Match Book, and began his successful
dynasty in 1774, when he took over the
publication not only of the Calendar but
of the still more famous Stud Book.
Something in the nature of a record of
the racing at Newmarket had been kept
by Mr. John Nelson, and sold by him as
long ago as 1670. In 1727 Mr. John
Cheney got togetherwith infinite industry
the first volume which gave a corrected account of thoroughbred stock, and
it is significant that he obtained most of his details from the ranks of those sporting
clergy who have been well represented by the Rev. Mr. Tarran, the Rev. Mr.
Hewgill (breeder of Priestess), the Rev. Mr. Goodricke, who won several St. Legers,
Parson Harvey, and that clerical Fellow of Corpus, Oxford, who owned and ran
Apology. From Mr. Cheney's dying hand, one Reginald Heber seized the torch of
fame, not without struggles with Mr. John Pond, and bore it till his death in 1768.

VOL. n. z z

The Duke of Bedford.

Richard Tatter sail, d. 1795.

RACING AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

The following year was convulsed with rival publications by Mr. B. Walker, and
Messrs. Fawconer and Tuting, who seem to have combined the functions of Secretary
to the Jockey Club and Keeper of the Match Book. But in 1774, after a slight
altercation, Mr. James Weatherby vindicated his right to the publications his family
has ever since controlled, and began a course of intimately allied business which grew
so large that by the beginning of the twentieth century the Jockey Club found
themselves compelled to reorganise the affairs which the genius of the Weatherbys
had so enormously increased and improved. From Hamilton Street, Park Lane, to
Bury Street, St. James's, to Oxenden Street, Haymarket, and finally to Old
Burlington Street, its present locality, their place of business has moved at one time
or another, always retaining its reputation and continually increasing its value and
its multifarious operations. Solicitor, treasurer, agent, keeper of the Match Book,
publisher of the Calendar and stake-holder — all these things a Weatherby has been
since 1750, and all of them have been accomplished to the credit of the Jockey Club
and of the English Turf.

No less important, and no less honourable, was the connection that began at this
same period, when Richard Tattersall, an honest Yorkshireman of humble origin, set up
as an auctioneer of horses in London, after leaving his post of superintendent of the
stables of the Duke of Kingston. The architect of his own fortunes, Mr. Tattersall
left his descendants an untarnished name that has become a household. word in every
country where racing is encouraged ; a fine business in full swing ; Highflyer Hall
and an estate near Ely. Perhaps his little expedition into Journalism was the one
thing that might have been regretted, from the financial point of view, but it had no
effect upon his reputation, and after living for many years to give the toast of " The
Hammer and Highflyer," he died. "Yet," says the epitaph that then appeared,
" as long as the recollection of honest work, sociable manners, and hospitality
unbounded shall be clear to the memory of man, the remembrance of him shall
live : surviving the slender aid of the proud Pyramid, the boasted durability of
Brass, and the Wreck of Ages ! " His place of business has now been removed
from Hyde Park Corner to the no less convenient site at Albert Gate, Knightsbridge.
In 1772 was appointed the first regular Judge at Newmarket — to complete this
slight sketch of Turf officialdom — in the person of Mr. John Hilton, who was to be
seen at Epsom, Brocket Hall, Bibury, and elsewhere. He was succeeded by the
family of Clark, who seemed likely to establish a dynasty as long lived as the
Weatherbys or Tattersalls, till the last of them was succeeded by Mr. Robinson.

348

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

There appear also a Clerk of the Scales (John Hammond), and a Starter (Samuel
Betts), to show that everything was in proper order by the time the nineteenth
century was about to begin. And I shall introduce that century appropriately by
considering in my next chapter the jockeys who, like Francis Buckle, had made a
name for themselves when it began, or who were soon to lend lustre to its earlier
decades. Among them the name of Chifney stands out with especial clearness,
and it is in connection with that I shall have something more definite to say
concerning the racing career of the Prince of Wales, who became afterwards King-
George IV

A Race Meeting in 1789.

END OF PART I., VOL. II.

349

CHAPTER XIV.

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER.

" Take a pestle and mortar of moderate size :
Into Queensberry's head put Bunbury's eyes,
Pound Clermont to dust — you'll find it expedient,
The world cannot furnish a better ingredient —
From Derby and Bedford take plenty of spirit,
Successful or not, they have always that merit,
Tommy Panton's address, John Wastell's advice,
And a touch of Prometheus, 'tis done in a trice."

[A Receipt to make a Jockey '.]

T must have been obvious to the earliest supporters of the Turf that however good
they bred their horses they would never win a race — or pocket a bet — unless those
horses were well ridden ; and the ballad of Gatherley Moor, quoted in the Appendix,
will show that this great truth had been realised as early as the first quarter of the
seventeenth century. Even if the foundation of the Jockey Club had not drawn
attention to the importance of this question, the retirement of the Prince of Wales
must have very sharply emphasised some of its aspects, and I therefore take the name
of Chifney — with which that retirement was connected— as the starting-point for a
consideration of a few of those important details which are suggested by any list of
famous jockeys I do no't pretend to give anything like an exhaustive list of " these
little gentlemen of the pigskin " ; and I shall avoid, as far as possible, any particular
criticisms or appreciations of those whose work in the saddle my readers can observe
on any modern racecourse ; but it will be a convenient opportunity to gather together
here several notes on famous jockeys whose career would not otherwise be connected
with that period of Turf History at which we have chronologically arrived. Certain
comparisons and conclusions, inevitable in such a subject, will also be more
appropriately considered from the standpoint we are now taking, the beginning

VOL. II. 3 A

350

A HISTORY OF THK XXGLISH TURF.

of the nineteenth century, than from any arbitrarily determined point in the modern
history which we shall reach later on.

The suggestion was once made by an enthusiastic Turfite, who was also a fine
writer, that a book entitled " From Buckle to Archer" would, in capable hands, be
one of the most interesting' ever written. I am not aware that it has yet been clone,
and I commend the idea warmly to any budding author with sufficient time on his
hands and experience in his head. Though Archer's history must be dealt with
in later pages, I have given in this volume a photogravure from Mr. Brodrick
Cloete's painting of him on Paradox, which will enable my readers to

compare him with his
earlier rivals. Of this "old
school," " The Druid's
opinion was that no more
brilliant quartette were
ever seen at Newmarket
t h a n Buckle, Chi f n e y,
Robinson, and Harry
Edwards, of whom Tommy
Lye once confided to a
friend that he " would as
lieve ride against Sattan";
and an ardent admirer
quoted Shakespeare to
the effect that- •

" Miss Coiner."

" I saw young Harry, with his beaver on

Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury

And vaulted with such ease into his seat
. As if an angel dropped down from the clouds

To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus

And witch the world with noble horsemanship."

But it is my own belief that even those four might be matched among their
successors ; for though such art as was the best of theirs is not a question of time,
or even of experience, but a joy for ever, unfettered by the flight of years, yet it
cannot be denied that far greater calls are made upon a jockey now than ever was
the case a hundred years ago. He has far more mounts in a season. His
judgment of pace must be far keener. The old idea of starting at a canter—

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER.

35'

sometimes even at a walk — has been abandoned. A race is fought out from start
to finish ; and the man who ventures nowadays to depend only on a run-in from
the distance and a neat victory by a head, will not often find himself justified in giving
so much indulgence to the pleasure of cutting it fine. But if the character of the
first part of a race has generally changed, the value of a determined finish has, if
anything, increased. Those who remember Fordham on Sabimts in the Cambridge-
shire, Archer on Melton in the Derby, Tom Cannon on Isonomv at Manchester,
Chaloner on Caller On in the St. Leger, or John Watts on Thais for the Thousand
Guineas, will not be likely to admit that these finishes were ever greatly surpassed
by any of their predecessors. For a more startling difference, both in methods
and in men, we should
have to go to the
trainers of our own
time. Between these
men and the majority
of the farriers who
dedicated their some-
what absurd volumes
to Sir John Lade or
"Tommy Onslow,"
there is as much
difference in compre-
hension of the noble
animal as in upright-
ness and integrity ;
perceived, and no doubt .wished to emphasise, when he gave Fred Archer
^500 for winning the Derby but bestowed double that amount on Robert Peck
who trained Bend Or. The formidable sums considered justifiable as presents
at the beginning of the twentieth century to a jockey already in receipt of
a larger income than a Cabinet Minister, are no more an indication of increased
excellence in riding than the huge fees now asked for stallions, or the inflated prices
for a fashionably bred yearling, are a guarantee that bloodstock has improved.

A few of the famous jockeys of the eighteenth century have already been
mentioned, and their exploits were celebrated all over the country in their time,
though the chronicles are somewhat too silent as to their doings, save in such forms

"Moll Tonson" and "Barefoot" at the Well Gap, Newmarket.

a difference which the late Duke of Westminster

352

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

as that sono- which records how John Tow (in red) met the redoubtable Matchem
Timms (in yellow) one famous August at York in 1700 : —

" Come all ye noble sportmen that love to show fair play,
I'll tell you of a valiant match that was run ac York one day
Between Mr. Warren's Careless, which I tell o'er and o'er,
And the Duke of Devonshire's Atlas that never was beat before."

I am not sure that " fair play " is an exact description of the " cross and jostle"
which was somewhat prevalent in Yorkshire and elsewhere when this spirited ballad

was first popular ; but it is not often that
a more trustworthy word is obtainable
of the doings of the period. One
jockey's mounts, however, I have been
able to trace in a rather more connected
manner from the old race-cards, and the
name of John Singleton will serve as
well as any other to introduce us to the
Old School, for he died only five years
before the nineteenth century began and
he spent no less than fifty in the saddle.
Born at Melbourne, near Pockling-
ton, in Yorkshire, John Singleton began
as a cattleherd on Ross Moor, but was
soon attracted towards his master's
stables. Mr. Read was a sporting farmer
' on the Wolds. In 1735 his bay mare

John SingLetvn. Rackcicl, by a son of Bay Uoltun,

raced at York, and in 1734 at Hambleton ; in 1733 his ch. g. Tantivy was
beaten for the Galloways' Plate at York, and in 1732 his grey mare won His
Majesty's 100 guineas at Hambleton, thus making a capital beginning with the
first entry of his which I can find recorded, and he was no doubt glad enough to get
a boy with good hands to win a country wager now and then. This boy was given
a ewe one day for a clever bit of work, and with the price of her progeny he paid the
fee of Smiling Tom (by the Conyers Arabian] for covering his master's mare. The
foal was a good one, and John Singleton rode his own horse past the post in the
Subscription Plate at Hambleton, and also at Morpeth, Stockton, and Sunderland.

/ ,

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER.

353

Mr. Read, who was a persistent racer, won the Hunters' Purse of twenty cruineas
(owners up) at York, in 1739, with Three Legs. At that date Matchem Timms was
still riding, but I find no mention of Singleton on the Northern cards before 174%
though in view of his first purchase it is most interesting to see that Mr Read's b.
Lucy (by Gallant's Smiling Tom, who also sired Mr. Barley's gr. h. Plunder] was fourth
for His Majesty's 100 guineas, for five-year-old mares at Hambleton in 1737. She
was beaten at York in 1736. Singleton's fine riding had soon attracted the attention
of the Marquis of Rockingham, who eventually made him both his rider and his
trainer ; and he used to attend at Newmarket in the spring and Thixendale in the
summer. Riding the
Marquis's Bay Malton, he
beat Herod at Newmarket,
and seven years after-
wards celebrated his
fiftieth year in the saddle.
He died at the advanced
age of eighty years in
1795, and was buried near
his old master's grave by
Ross Moor.

We begin the con-
trasts already ; for where
could we find a jockey
nowadays who only

served two masters all his life, and was buried in the same church with his
first employer by the desire of each ? Singleton made money and founded the
fortunes of his family at Great Givendale, where he was universally beloved. In
1769 he had married the widow of Peter Jackson, a name well known in the annals
of th'e saddle. His own son John did not ride, but his nephew rode Lord Rocking-
ham's Alabacuha, and had a son of the same name as himself, the third John
Singleton, who won the Derby of 1797 for the Duke of Bedford, and also the
St. Leger for Lord Fitzwilliam in Orville's year, but died young. To the end of his
life the original old John could lilt a full glass of port without a tremor, for his head
and nerves remained as cool as his chest and arms were strong and solid. He could
ride Sst. 7lb. when he was fifty-seven years old, as may be seen from the card of the

'Oscar" by " Saltram," from a "Highflyer" mare.

354

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH 7 L'A'F.

York Meeting of August, 1772. One of the best of his North Country predecessors
was Thomas Jackson, who rode and trained for Mr. Cuthbert Routh, of Snape Hall,
near Bedale, and for Mr. Jenison Shafto at Newmarket, who died at the age of
sixty-two, " worn out in the service of his friends," as his epitaph in Nunnington
Church declares, though a stern accuracy compels me to relate that he left the Turf in
consequence of the opinions held concerning his riding against Leonard Jewison at
York, which also led to his being supplanted as principal rider by Anthony Wheatley
in the stables so successfully managed by his brother, Christopher Jackson, who rode

Lord Darlington's " Rubens " (1805) by "Buzzard."

Matchem for Mr. Fenwick of Bywell, and afterwards trained at Middleham for
Messrs. John Pratt of Askrigg, John Coates, William Bethell, Jenison Shafto and
others, until his death in 1790.

When Singleton retired, Lord Rockingham gave the green jacket to Christopher
Scaife of Bedale, a pupil of the Christopher Jackson just mentioned, and husband of one
of Singleton's nieces, on the recommendation of Mr. John Pratt. After Lord
Rockingham's death in 1782 Scaife continued his work for Lord Fitzwilliam, until an
accident in 1793 compelled him to retire, for Sir William Lowther's Minion fell

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER.

355

backwards over him and broke several ribs. H is saddle was taken by young Singleton,
and his training stables went to his son, John Scaife. Another famous Northern jockey
was Mangle, who rode first for Isaac Cape at Tupgill near Middleham, whose training
establishment he subsequently took on, being responsible for the horses of the Duke
of Hamilton and Brandon, the Duke of Norfolk, Mr. Henry Peirse, Mr. William
Bethell, Mr. John Pratt and others, with such success that he built a new house and
stables at Brecongill, near Ashgill, afterwards occupied by the Dawsons. He won
five St. Legers, four for Lord A. Hamilton, whose Paragon, Spadille and Young Flora

" Seliin " by "Buzzard"

won in three successive years, and he was known as •" Crying Mangle," perhaps
because so much success had spoilt him for bearing up against reverses. His chief
jockeys were John Jackson and Benjamin Smith. He died quite blind and very old,
in 1831. That Yorkshire was particularly successful about this time may be judged
from what was done by James Croft of East Wilton, near Middleham, who learnt his
riding under Mr. John 1'Anson, of Newmarket, but went back to his own moors to
train, where he prepared Fil/w da Puta, The Duchess, and Jerry, besides Theodore, in
whose St. Leger the first four horses all came from the same stable.

A HISTORY OF THE EXGLISH TURF.

A few more of these older jockeys deserve mention before we pass out of sight of
the times in which they lived. Among them Michael Mason will be chiefly remem-
bered as the rider of Morwick Ball, and as a successful trainer on the Wold until his
death in 1786. Another pair always spoken of together were Charles Dawson of
Richmond and Mr. Mutton's Silvio, who won the Richmond Gold Cup in 1764 after
being beaten four times previously for the same event by Dainty Davy. Dawson
subsequently trained for Sir Lawrence Dundas of Aske, with W. Arnold and T. Fields
as his riders, both of whom succeeded to his stables. Yet a third indissoluble connection
in the memory of every racing man is that between Eclipse and John Oakley, who died
in ' 793- The hard work some of these men had to do may be judged from such

exploits as that of Joseph
Rose of Stokesley, wht>
once rode Mr. Stapleton's
Beauf remold (by Tartar}
on Monday, Sept. 3,
1764. for the King's Plate
at Lincoln, and on the
Wednesday for the Ladies'
Plate ; rode Dainty Davy
at Richmond in Yorkshire
on Thursday ; and Butc/ic-
lor a,t Manchester on the
Friday ; all this before
railways, or even macada-
mised roads, were dreamt

of. The jockey who won most Gold Cups in the eighteenth century seems to have
been John Kirton, whose St. Leger on Mr. Coate's Omf>hale (by HioJiflyer'], after
she had been amiss for some time, and was very short of training, was his most
notable classic triumph, for he beat the fa.vourite and won easily. He came into
a fortune and lived till he was ninety-three, but was blind and crippled ere he died.

The name of Alabacnlia has been mentioned in connection with old John
Singleton's nephew. When the race in which this was the first victory was
definitely called the St. Leger, its first winning jockey was George Herring, who
rode Hollandinsc for Sir Thomas Gascoigne and Mr. Stapleton, and whose career
was as brilliant as it was short, after he had learnt his riding on Bramham Moor with

Sir Charles B 'anbury's "Thunderbolt" (1806) by "Sorcerer."

1 1 ' r ~

VHl\s~*"e

^J?*i

-C£*MA

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER.

357

" Black Jack," as Mr. John Lowther, the trainer, was known in those parts. Herring
once won nineteen races in succession, a feat which will take a lot of beating, and
was killed in 1796, in the last races that were held at Hull, by Mr. John Hutchinson's
black mare Gipsy, an own sister to Hambletonian, who threw him three times at the
start of the Mai-den Plate, and finally killed him on the spot. It was in this Mr.
Hutchinson's stable that John Cade (a compatriot of the elder Singleton) received
his first tuition. Cade succeeded Leonard Jewison on Mr. Peregrine Wentworth's
horses. Yet a third famous jockey came from the same village of Melbourne, in
Thomas Fields, who trained Miss Corn/art h for Sir Walter Vavasour, and succeeded
William Arnold in Charles Dawson's stables. His best race was on Sir Harry
Vane's Cockfighter by Over ton at the York August Meeting of 1800. The brown colt,
who was favourite, bolted at Middlethorpe corner and lost about 300 yards, but
Fields brought him up to his antagonists inch by inch, and just pulled off the victory
after a display of the greatest judgment and coolness. It will be remembered that
on the Tuesday of the meeting this same Cockfighter (then mounted by J. Shepherd)
beat Wonder (F. Buckle) and Mr. Cookson's Sir Harry, the owner of the last-named
colt being very angry with his jockey, Sam Chifney, for what he considered his bad
riding. But Sam stuck to it that Sir Harry " could not run," and when he was
ridden by Singleton the next day he came in last again, which proved the jockey
knew what he was talking about, and also rode straight, as I am inclined to think
was the case in the famous incident of Escape. To this I must now turn without
further delay, or the careers of other jockeys will carry me too far beyond the story
of the Prince of Wales, which must be told in this chapter.

Samuel Chifney (senior) wrote a book. Its published price was five pounds, and
it was " Sold for the author at 232, Piccadilly, and nowiiere
else." Not long ago I bought a copy in the same neighbour-
hood for rather less than one-tenth of that sum, and the confiding
sentences upon its title-page are worth consideration.

£juyney

" Genius Genuine, by Samuel Chifney of Newmarket. A fine part in riding
a race, known only to the author. Why there are so few good runners, or why
the Turf horses degenerate. A guide to recover them to their strength and speed,
as well as to train horses for running, and hunters and hacks for hard riding ; to
preserve their strength and their sinews from being so often destroyed ; with
reasons for horses changing in their running ; likewise a full account of the
Prince's horse, Escape, running at Newmarket on the 2oth and aist days of October, 1791, with
other interesting particulars. January gth, 1804."

Just three years after this was printed its author died within the Rules of Fleet

VOL. II. 7 p,

358

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF,

Prison, leaving a widow and six children without much to live upon. But this was
not owing to " Genius Genuine." Indeed, there was more truth in the title-page just
quoted than any other jockey of the time could have claimed successfully. There is
little doubt Chifney's exquisite " hands " —that mystery of mysteries in horsemanship
— have never been surpassed, and only equalled perhaps by George Fordham. The
rough old school of Yorkshiremen feared him more than any other of their hated
Newmarket rivals, for he had a style they never understood, and he could do more
with a plain snaffle than other men could manage with a Mexican curb, as he showed
when he rode the Regent's Knowsley first past the post at Guildford with a slack
rein. " The Chifney rush " and general style of finishing, which were inherited by

the son, is admirably
depicted in the picture
by Stubbs of the elder
Samuel on Baronet,
which is reproduced on
page 335 of this volume
It is explained, if words
can ever explain the
thing, in the following
passage: "As the horse
comes to the last ex-
tremity, finishing his
race, he is the better
forced and kept straight
with manner, and with
fine touchings of his mouth. In this situation the horse's mouth should be
eased of the weight of his rein .... when horses are in great distress
•they cannot face that visible manner of pulling. They must be allowed to ease them-
selves an inch at a time as their situation will allow. This should be done as though
you had a silken rein as fine as a hair, and were afraid of breaking it." The son
benefited enormously from such intelligent teaching, and when no more than three
stone in weight was taking lessons on his pony from his father into which every phase
of finishing was compressed. " By the powers, it's not fair," used to say Dennis Fitz-
patrick ; " Buckle and I will be having old Sam and Sam's son down on us soon."
Born about 1750 in Norfolk, the elder Chifney learnt training and practised

" Pericles" (1809) by " Evander.

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER. 359

riding under Richard Prince, Lord Foley's groom, and his riding soon put him in a
place by himself above Oakley, the two Arnulls (or Arnold), Buckle, Hindley, or
Clift. He was employed by Lord Grosvenor, the Duke of Bedford, Mr. Thomas
Panton, and finally by the Prince of Wales himself. He was five-foot-five tall, clean
run, muscular and light, and among many other victories he won the Derby for the
Duke of Bedford on Skyscraper (see pages 290 and 345). I have already hinted at
my opinion that, though Chifney was probably by no means a " plaster saint," he was
not so much to blame as Sir Charles Bunbury imagined. One side of that famous
inquiry will never be known. Chifney's own evidence may be summed up as follows : —
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales had entered his b. h. Escape (by
Highflyer, dam by Squirrel] for a race at Newmarket on October 20, 1791. He
had bred the horse himself, and named him because he had kicked through the side
of his stall when a yearling and was rescued without injury. It is curious that after
he was sent to the stud, one of his colts, called Hairbreadth, was killed in the Maiden
Stakes at Chester in 1798, by violently colliding with a soldier after bolting over the
cords. One of Escapes victories was at York in August, 1790, when he beat Actaeon
and Gustavus for the Great Subscription of ^"295 for five-year-olds, 8st. ylb., four
miles, in the year after the Prince of Wales made his famous visit to the York races,
saw Miss Farren as Beatrice in " Much Ado," dined with the Lord Mayor, and
finished a triumphant progress through the North by staying at Wentworth House
with Lord Fitzwilliam. In 1791, at the same meeting, Sam Chifney rode Traveller
(see page 254), Creeper (see page 229), and Traveller again, for the Prince of Wales,
and was beaten in all three races. The jockey (who was riding about 8st. gib.)
thought Traveller (6 years) was unfit, and said as much to his trainer, Casborne, and
to the Prince, but recommended his royal master to back Creeper (5 years), and
backed the horse himself for two hundred guineas. When he stripped Creeper for
saddling just before the Wednesday race (the Great Subscription) he " believed him
poisoned, for his carcase was swelled in so extraordinary a manner that I never saw a
horse so before." There was no time to hedge, or to warn any one else, and though
the pace was easy at the start (four miles) the horse was beaten by Walnut three or
four lengths. Mr. Orton gives the betting as 3 to i on Walnut. On Thursday
Traveller, who had been beaten by Spadille, Gustavtts, and Fox on the Monday, was
again beaten by Tickle Toby and Walnut over another four-mile course, " universally
allowed," says Mr. Orton, " to be one of the finest races ever run." The finish was so
close that Chifney, who " poured upon the leaders " in the last hundred yards,

36°

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

thought he had beaten Walnut, the favourite, as well as Gustavus, and got in second.
He was placed third, and Tickle Toby got the verdict by a head. The betting was
3 to i against the winner, 7 to i against Gustavus and Traveller. Two months
afterwards Chifney was back at Newmarket, where Escape was matched on the 3rd
of October against the Duke of Bedford's Grey Dioined (see page 238) at even
weights, four miles, for a thousand guineas, and just won on the run in. " Sam
Chifney," said His Royal Highness, as the horses were walking back to scale, " no
person but you shall ride for me," and shook him by the hand. The next day the
same two horses met again, for a Plate, under the same conditions, and with the

same result, Chifney only
winning by a small part
of what he could have
done if he had wished.

On the 2Oth, Escape
was entered for the Sixty
Guinea Stakes, Ditch In,
for which Chifney did not
think him fit, and dis-
suaded the Prince from
betting on him. The
owner's orders were
given as he sat in the
royal carriage with Lord
Barrymore, near the
lower end of the rails by the Turn of the Lands. "Sam Chifney," said His
Royal Highness, " I am never afraid when I am giving South and you orders, for
I know you are both too good jockeys to overmark your horse ; but now I will not
compel you to make play with Escape ; providing there should be good play made by
any other horse, you may wait with Escape, but should there be no other horse make
such as you think good play, you must take care to make good play with Escape."
These orders did not commend themselves to Chifney, who found that his mount had
not had a sweat since his last race with Grey Diomed ; so that on Mr. Lake's
suggesting that he should wait, and that the Prince should be informed of the
change they had both made in the instructions, Chifney waited, and the result was as
follows : —

The Duke of Graf fan's "Partisan" (1811)
by " Walton" out of "Parasol."

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER. 36 x

r. Mr. Dawson's Coriander 4 to i against

2. Lord Grosvenor's Skylark ... ... ... ... 5 to i against

3. Lord Clermont's Pipeator

4. His Royal Highness's Escape 2 to i against.

The Prince naturally thought himself "a better jockey than Mr. Lake or Chifney,"
and considered the race had been lost through the change in his instructions. The
jockey, however, insisted that it had been lost through the horse's lack of preparation,
and was equally confident that after this sweating Escape would be fit to win next day,
saying he would back him to win himself, and urging both the Prince and Mr. Lake,
the superintendent of the Royal Stable, to do the same. The Prince did so, and
gave precisely the same orders for the race of the next day, October the aist, and
Mr. Vauxhall Clark got Chifney's twenty guineas on for him The first race had
been over a two-mile course, and the running had not been severe until the last
half-mile. On the 2ist, over the Beacon Course, Skylark made the running at once,
and kept ahead till a hundred yards from home. The result was as follows : —

1. His Royal Highness's Escape ... ... ... 5 to i against.

2. Lord Barrymore's Chanticleer ... ... ... 7 to 4 against.

3. Lord Grosvenor's Skylark ~ ... ... ... ... n to 5 against

4. Duke of Bedford's Grey Diomed ... ... ... 6 to i against.

5. Lord Clermont's Pipcator

6. Mr. Barton's Alderman

There was very naturally a good deal of comment on this, and Chifney was had up
before the Stewards, Sir Charles Bunbury, Mr. Ralph Dutton, and Mr. Panton.
The jockey testified that he had had no bets on the first day, and twenty guineas on
the second, and that he had waited because he knew Skylark had a turn of speed,
"though a jade," while Escape was also "very fast." Sir Charles, however, had
evidently made up his mind. No further reasons were given, and the examination was
concluded. Chifney knew, of course, that Escap,. could give Baronet twenty pounds and
a beating, and that Baroiift had won the Oatland Stakes (page 338) and ^,17,000 at
least for his royal master, in a hot field of eighteen, besides having beaten Coriander
on the 6th of October. He knew that Escape had been unfit for the Oatlands, and
he felt a considerable, and justifiable, distrust for Neale, the trainer, while Casborne
had already fallen under suspicion over Creeper 's race at York, and was actually
dismissed for doping horses later on. There was also a good deal of tension
between himself and Mr Lake, who was evidently anxious from the first to put the
worst construction on the business, and not without some success, if we may judge

362

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

from the contemporary caricature by Rowlanclson, which is reproduced in these
pages. Clearly, too, Chifney's superior knowledge of condition, and probably ol
training also, could not always be unreservedly placed at his master's disposal without
a good deal of friction among those other servants whose main duties were rather to
feed, groom, or prepare the horses than to ride them. Moreover, the evil practice of
doping had unfortunately already appeared, as " Mr. Hodges, the great bettor," was
aware. An instance of it is indeed recorded by Mr. Orton in 1778, when William

Turner was tried at York Castle on
the charge of having given two pounds
of duckshot, made up in putty-balls, to
Mr. Bethell's Miss Nightingale by
Matchein, from the effects of which she
died on the Sunday before a race for
which she was entered at Boroughbridge.
The nobbling of Magog in the same
year has been already mentioned. The
unhappy creature won, though his
tongue was nearly cut out. Another
case in the North Country occurred at
Doncaster in 1808, when several horses
were poisoned by means of some deadly
drug which was put into their watering-
troughs by the scoundrelly firm of
" Dawson & Co." Three years later
one of these rascals, named Daniel
Dawson, secured the assistance of one

Cecil Bishop, shopman to a Wardour Street chemist, who first met him in 1807, and
had helped to poison various horses since that time, assisted by a person named Twist.
They had attempted to "nobble" Lord Darlington's Rubens, who won the Pavilion
Stakes at Brighton in 1809, and they finaJly poisoned some animals entered for the
Claret Stakes and the Craven Stakes at Newmarket, which were under the charge of
Richard Prince. Among these were Lord Foley's Pirouette and Spaniard, Lord
Kinnaird's Dandy, and Sir F. Standish's colt by Eagle, together worth some ,£12,000,
considering their value and engagements. In May, 1811, Mr. Talbot was betting
Lord Frederick Bentinck five guineas at White's Club "that destroying a horse by

" Filho da Puta" (1812) by "Haphazard?

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER. 363

poison is not a capital offence by Act of Parliament." Lord Frederick, firm in his
opinion, was also betting Mr. Sloane and Colonel Osborne that it was. All three
wagers were soon settled on good authority, for after an acquittal on a point of law,
Dawson was tried for poisoning a horse belonging to Mr. Adams of Royston.
Dawson left a bottle which had contained arsenic under his bed, which his landlady
found, and on this and other evidence, including that of his accomplice Bishop, he
was found guilty and hanged on the top of Cambridge Castle on Saturday, August
8th, 1812. It might be thought that this was the high-water mark of such nefarious
practices. But unfortunately we find that Mr. Harvey Combe's Cobham was
suspected of having been poisoned in 1838; Lanercost was ineffectually "got at" ;
Ralph was fatally mishandled ; and suspicion attached with more or less justice to the
cases of Attila, Cot/ierstone, Old England, Surplice, Ncwminstcr, Blair Atliol, Hester,
and Orme, unless indeed " teeth " may be accepted as a complete explanation in the
last instance of a mystery that has never been quite cleared up, in spite of all the
trainer's and owner's efforts. The Derby of 1844 was especially infamous; for not
only was Leander under more than a suspicion of being over age, but Running Rein
was definitely disqualified from winning for that reason, and the race was given to
Colonel Peel's Orlando, who came in second, after an investigation in which Lord
George Bentinck took a leading part. The sixty-sixth anniversary of the Derby was
indeed hardly a propitious omen for the prosperous continuance of that historic
struggle. The death of Crockford on Oaks Day made matters very difficult for the
Ring, and there are ghastly stories still told of his corpse being placed upright at the
corner window in St. James's Street, where the Devonshire Club is now, with a
mercenary object that is sufficiently intelligible. Defaulters had been so numerous
that a code of new rules had to be drawn up for the observance of all subscribers to
Tattersall's. Charles James Apperley, who, as " Nimrod," had done excellent work
in criticising all and sundry in every form of sport, had died a year ago, soon after
Christopher Wilson, the " Father of the Turf." The Duke of Grafton, owner of
Prunella and Penelope, of Whalebone, of Whisker, was also on his death-bed. Cases like
those involved by the withdrawal of Canadian, or the refusal of Connop to pay his entry-
fees for the Grand Duke Michael Stakes, showed that much public uneasiness was
being felt. The shower of " Oui Tarn " actions in 1844 brought matters to a head, for
the scandal about Running Rein involved more than the large sums of money at
stake, and the thanks of the Jockey Club were most appropriately given to Lord
George Bentinck "for the energy, perseverance and skill which he displayed in

364

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TVRF.

detecting, exposing and defeating the atrocious frauds which have been brought to
lio-ht." Similar cases of dishonesty occurred on other occasions, as when Bloodstone
was disqualified, after winning the New Stakes at Ascot and being proved to be over
two years old. The in-and-out running of Mr. Crockford's Rafan also resulted in two
men being warned off. The very next year the Stewards were investigating the case
of Mr. Gully's Old England, who was third in Merry Monarch's Derby, and the truth
about him does not even yet seem clear. Other cases there were, perhaps not so
sinister, as the supposed personation of Bend Or by Tadcaster, which is always
remembered, but was never proved ; or the suppositious Tontine who won the French
Derby of 1840 and turned out to be the English Herodias — -parallels to which latter

instance may be found
in 1810, when Hylas
posed as a " b. g. by
Worthy " at Warwick,
or Tybalt tried to run at
York in 1825 as Mr.
Rowlav's Tom Paine.

J

Nor were these malprac-
tices, which lasted in one
form or another to the
verv end of the nine-

j

teenth century, limited to
mishandling the horses ;
"Anticipation" (1812) by " Hatnliii-toninn." for, as will be mentioned

later, the grim story of Palmer the poisoner reveals the fact that a reckless and clever
man will not stick at murdering his friend if he is driven to ruin by racing in the
wrong spirit.

Many more such cases might be added to this incomplete catalogue ; out enough
has been said to suggest that the clays when Samuel Chifney, Senior, was examined
by Sir Charles Bunbury did not stand alone in their possibilities of iniquity, and that
both before and after his time worse crimes were known upon the Turf than were
ever imputed either to him or his employers. At any rate, acting upon evidence that
has not yet reached the public, the Stewards of the Jockey Club let it be known that
if Chifney rode the Prince's horses no gentleman would start against them. It is not
likely that His Royal Highness either benefited by a villain's malpractices, or

565

2

vol.. ][.

366

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

deliberately wished to shield a guilty man. " You have been an honest and good
servant to me," he said, when Sir John Lade brought the jockey to Carlton House
to be told that he should be paid two hundred guineas a year for the rest of his
Royal master's life. The Stewards' threat was answered by the Prince's personal
withdrawal from the Turf, followed by the sale of his bloodstock — two stallions,
eleven blood mares, and fourteen horses in training. He kept a few which he used
as hacks or hunters ; and three of these, painted by Stubbs, including a portrait of
Gascoyne, the groom mentioned by Chifney, I have the privilege of reproducing in

How to "Escape" losing.

this volume by the kindness of His Majesty the King and H.R.H. Prince Christian,
whose dining-room at Cumberland Lodge they now adorn.

The sight of them recalls a vivid memory of that time when the Prince and Sir
John Lade were the central figures of every smart race-meeting, and the curious
association of the latter with so different a man as Dr. Johnson, deserves a short
explanation, though the Doctor's sympathy with the Turf needs no further proof
than the fact that Sir Charles Bunbury was one of his pall-bearers. The attention of
racing men generally appears to have been drawn to Sir John at Waxy s Derby,

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWXER.

367

when some thought he was a Turkish Ottoman, and others put him down as a
pirate, because he wore trousers. But the great lexicographer's acquaintance with
him went back to a much earlier period. He was born a Baronet, for he came into
the world after his father's death in 1759. His mother stood six feet high in
her stockings, and was sister to Henry Thrale. Several times did Johnson show
his deep interest in his friend's nephew, both when he was so seriously ill at
eighteen, and when he came of age. He even took the opportunity of Fanny
Burney's visit to the Thrales to support the proposal of a match between that young

By permission of His Majestv the A'ing
and H.R.ti. Prince Christian.

A Grey Horse from the Stud of H.R.H. the Prince
of Wales (after-wards George IV.).

lady and the heir, but Sir John would hardly have been a suitable consort, as the
Doctor soon found out, and he was scarcely twenty-one before he had got himself
elected a member of the Jockey Club, and rode Adonis for the Plate. His skill with
the whip with anything from a four-in-hand to a mule cart was such that he was soon
known as " Sir John Jehu," and he once won a bet that he would drive both off-
wheels of his coach over a sixpenny bit. This skill, added to a considerable
knowledge of horseflesh and a knack for picking up the black-legged bays supposed
to be suitable to Royalty, soon led to the Prince of Wales choosing Sir John

-68 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

\J

as his private adviser in most matters connected with his stables. In 1784 they
wen: both at Brighton with the notorious Major Manger, and the years immediately
ensuing were those when Brighton races became most fashionable. There was
bettiii" of every sort and kind, both here and elsewhere, and Lade's large fortune
was able to stand the strain no better than that of a much finer man, Hon. Colonel
Mellish. 'Mis most famous match was tor 300 guineas a side against the Duke
of Bedford, between Clifdoi and Dragon, owners up (15 stone each), Beacon Course,
which the Duke won. On another occasion he was so rash as to bet "Old O." that
he could produce a champion who would eat more than the Duke's man ; and it is
almost unnecessary to say that His Grace of Queensb^rry won "by a pig and an
apple pie," as the referee reported As time went on, Lade developed less agreeable
proclivities. He once began to calculate the interest on a debt which Charles James
Fox was about to pay him after a lucky night at faro, so Charles put the notes back
in his pocket, remarking that he always paid his Jew creditors last. This sounds as
if Counsellor Lade, of Cannon Park, were of the same family ; for this gentleman,
having forsaken the Law for the Turf, displayed a stinginess worthy of Miser Elwes
himself, and used to drive alone in his curricle and greys for fifty-seven miles without
giving them more than a handful of hay and a few drinks of water. Though he
chiefly went for country plates, he owned one good horse in Oatlands, His young
namesake was hard put to it before the end to raise any money at all. He sold his
estate at Bramber in Sussex, soon after 1780, and assigned his \\Tllesden property
to a coachmaker shortly afterwards. In 1788 he was selling a phaeton and greys to
Lord Barrymore for ,£1,000, and within the next two years he arranged other
profitable exchanges of horseflesh between himself and that reckless young nobleman
who married Letty Lade's sister at Gretna Green in 1792.

The fair Letty was hardly likely to assist her husband either by economy or
virtue. Letitia Darley was born in Lewknor Lane, St. Giles's, and first " took
up with " Sixteen-stringed Jack, a criminal who perished at Tyburn after he had
taught her such bad language that she was conspicuous even in those foul-mouthed
clays. She knew more about horses than any woman of her time, and once offered
to drive eight miles over Newmarket Heath against "another lady" for five
hundred guineas. She was also a remarkable cook, which may have put the
finishing touch to her attractions in the eyes of Sir John, who, after he married her,
promised a friend " a trout spotted all over like a coach-dog, a fillet of veal as white
as alabaster, a pantaloon cutlet, and pancakes as large as coachwheels, so help me."

369

37°

A HISTORY OF THK ENGLISH Tt'A'F.

This was also no doubt a recommendation to Weltje, the fat, important-looking
personage who was the Prince of Wales's cook, and who persistently betted on his
Royal master's horses until he died of apoplexy at Chiswick while drinking tea with
Mrs. Mayersbach. In any case, Lady Lade was often one of the set that went to
Brighton Races with the merry party from the Pavilion. Some of them have been
so closely described that we can almost see them now, as they walked down the
Steyne ; the Prince in a green jacket, a white hat, and light nankeen pantaloons and
shoes ; the dark hair and complexion and prominent eyes of Lacle, with his team

'J'hc ll'c/fer Stakes at Bibury, June 16, 1821.

waiting round the corner, four bays and harlequin postilion liveries, and Letty on the
box in a large plumed hat ; Lord Foley not far off, and Jerry Cloves as near as he
dared, begging Colonel Mellish to " light the candle and set us a-going." The
first time the Prince danced with Lady Lade at an assembly in the seaside town,
the Duchess of Rutland, Lady Elizabeth Luttrell, Lady Charlotte Bertie, and
Mrs. Fitzherbert at once left the room. Even ten years afterwards Letty complained
that " Lady Jersey made vulgar mouths at her on the racecourse."

Before the nineteenth century had fairly begun Lade was practically ruined, and
had become the "gentleman coachman" of the Prince, receiving a salary for

5§

I

^

•£>•*

I

I.

372

A HISTORy OF THE EAGLISH Tl'KF.

driving, and for continuing- to give valuable advice on the construction of such
important buildings as the Pavilion stables — a circular building with a dome, and
sixty-two stalls. His mother's death, and a windfall of ^"50,000, beside a good
income, postponed the crash a little longer, but by 1814 Lade had to. be rescued
from the King's Bench Prison.

If the old red pump, to which Admiral Rous was so fond of giving "a lick of
paint," could have related its experiences on the edge of the Cambridgeshire Course,

a good many of the bets that ruined Sir
John Lade, Colonel Mellish, and many
more, could now be recorded. For here,
each in his time, came Sir Robert
Walpole, Lord Bolingbroke, the two
Dukes of Grafton, the first Earl
Grosvenor, Lord Abingdon, Edward
Petre, and many more, while many
members of "the: ring" were there to
do business on horseback ; that is to
say, as soon as there were any pro-
fessional bookmakers at all. The
equestrian habit continued for longer
than might be imagined, for besides
Munten, who laid short odds to Cam-
bridge undergraduates from the back
of a rat-tailed nag, Barber followed the
same fashion, as did his vast con-
federate, Saxon, and Tim Haggarty, and

Pettijean, and Dick Harrison. But by the time of " Leviathan " Davies, Harry Hill, or
Fred Swindell, these financial operations had reached a volume and importance
which needed a solid and immovable foundation. It will be, perhaps, of interest to
insert in this place; one of the accounts between two famous Turfites of the late
eighteenth century. The letter from which the following figures are taken is now
in the possession of a great-grandson of William Gift, the well-known jockey who
won five Derbys (from Sir F. Poole's Waxv to the Duke of Portland's Tiresins)* and
was second on some half-dozen occasions ; and it is a copy of an account taken by
Mr. Weatherby out of his book for stakes at Newmarket, and delivered In him

Xa^niarkct Heath in 1807.

/TY

r or
^l-ifPRrNAi-

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER. 373

to Lord Grosvenor some time since. At foot it is marked as received by Thomas
Tyrwhitt on i6th April, 1799, and it is therefore a statement to the effect that the
Prince of Wales owed Earl Grosvenor 945 guineas, between July, 1795, and April, 1799.

GUINEAS.
Tuesday, May Meeting, 1795. Forfeit to the Irish Stakes, won by Lord

Grosvenor's colt by Rockitigham . . . . . . ... .95

Tuesday, ist October Meeting, 1795. Forfeit on the 1,400 guineas won by Lord

Grosvenor . . . . . . .? . . . . .100

First Spring Meeting, 1796. Two forfeits to the 1,200 guineas won by Lord

Grosvenor's Capsicum . . . . . . . . . .200

Produce Stakes at York forfeit in 1796 J0o

495

April, 1798. For a bay colt got by Meteor out of Leveret ... -5°

June 28th. For Antaeus . . . . . 400

945
Signed 16 April, 1799.

ABRAHAM MOORE, Auditor to the EARL GROSVENOR, No. 4, Lamb's Buildings, Temple.

Those who are curious to discover further details of the betting of the period
should consult the "Sporting Magazine," vol. xl., p. 70 (1812), for a digest of a
betting book; and vol. xli., p. 3, for an account of Joseph Eland's transactions over
the Pavilion Stakes, at Brighton, one of the races in which Sir John Lade helped to
ruin himself. Not all the Prince's associates were quite of this stamp, and many of
them showed that it was perfectly possible not only to support the Turf, but also to
be a first-class horseman, without absolutely riding post-haste to the devil. The
Duke of Dorset, Lord George Germain, and Delme Raclcliffe, when they rode
before the Prince of Wales, in his club uniform of green coat, buckskins and top-
boots, at a Bibury Meeting, were as good as any trio of jockeys in the kingdom, and
with the addition of Mr. Hawkes were considered by so good a judge as " Nimrod"
to be " within two pounds of any quartet of professionals." They went down to the
start on their hacks in most businesslike style, with their racing saddles strapped
round their waists, while " Nando " Bullock rode alongside " Splitpost " Douglas,
explaining to him how he had " turned the last post snug as murder; now, said I
to myself, the pantomime is going to begin and I think I shall beat Mr. Merryman."
If Mr. Hawkes had extraordinary judgment of pace in riding a waiting race, young
Tatton Sykes, who rode eleven stone and scored his first win for the " orange body,
blue sleeves and cap " of Sledmere up at Beverley, was equally celebrated for his
beautiful hands, and for such courage and skill as he once displayed in a match at
VOL. IT. 30

374 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

York when he got thrown over the rails, picked himself up, borrowed a coat and hat,
raced after his competitor, who had given up the struggle, and beat him. The
Duke of Dorset once broke a blood-vessel in his efforts to hold in the Prince's
Ploughator. Every race and every match was contested as sternly by these
gentlemen jockeys as by any of their contemporaries who made a living out of the
profession, and with the transplantation of the old Bibury Club many more things
besides bold horsemanship were lost to that section of the English Turf which made

its early days so brilliant. The spirit
of their contests survived in such men
as Admiral Rous, or Sir John Astley,
whose match with Mr. Alexander was
quite according to the Bibury fashion

' ,

, <*"• set when Tommy Panton raced Mr.

Wastell, owners up, at twenty-five

v— *A

stone each. The last part of the

nineteenth century showed that the

s^jL T*' . gentlemen riders of its early decades

had not yet quite died out, for though
Mr. J. M. Richardson, who won the
Grand National two years following,
"retired" in 1874, a "Mr. R. Owen"
scored his first win at the Beaufort
Hunt Meeting of 1876 ; and at about
the same time such riders were to be

found as Lord Melgund (now Earl of
S/r Tatto7i Sykes.

Minto), Lord Marcus Beresford, Arthur

Coventry, W. R. Brockton and Tom Price, who both affected a "crouching" attitude
akin to the style of Jem Robinson or even of George Fordham, which is supposed to
have been originated by the Americans, the brothers Beasley, G. S. Thompson, Captain
"Bay" Middleton, Dalbiac of the "Gunners," and other military successors to that
famous trio, Captain Knox, Major Tempest, and Captain Coventry, the last two of whom
fought out a finish in the Grand National that every one who was alive in 1865 must
well remember. Probably the best amateur ever seen was Mr. Baird, who rode as
" Mr. Abingdon " ; and in 1902 Mr. G. Thursby easily headed the amateur list at the
beginning of December with 15 wins out of 37 mounts, and only ten unplaced.

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER

375

Then came Mr. F. Hartigan, Mr. H. Nugent, and Captain Bewicke. Across country
the late H. S. Sidney again did best with Messrs. Harper and Wood close up.

When a certain literary foreigner visited Epsom in 1800 (as Henri Taine did
seventy-five years later) he recorded his impression that Englishmen cared for nothing
so much as horse-racing and cock-fighting, for their inns and houses were lined with
pictures of both sports. He thought some of the noble riders whose names have
been just mentioned ran a risk of being " deprived of respiration by the velocity of
their motion" ; and he would no doubt have been equally surprised had he observed
the velocity with which many of them
passed the bottle as they drank the
cabalistic toast of " Cardinal Puff" (at
the intricacies of which the Duke of
York excelled) after their day's sport
was over. Writing before our own
War Office had deliberately encouraged
English soldiers to enter for a road-
race from Brussels to Ostend, the
French visitor of 1800 comments on
our national kindness to animals, and
is full of admiration for the buck of
the period trotting out of town on his
neat crop-tailed tit, in a green riding
frock and plate buttons, cordovan
boots and a round hat. If he had
been able to understand contemporary
Turf arguments he would have learnt
that Sir Charles Bunbury's advocacy of two-year-old racing was considered by many
cognoscenti in 1801 to be ruining the breed, and he might even have heard some old-
fashioned supporter of the ancient days quoting from the "Sporting Magazine'1 of a few
years previously to the effect that " the present dreary gloom of camps, campaigns, and
national disquietude, joined to the sterility of adventure, a palpable pecuniary scarcity,
and the transpiration of sporting integrity had produced a most unpromising prospect of
Turf achievements." Yet it would have been hard for him to believe that the Turf was
going to the dogs (as it has always been doing from the beginning until now, if the
pessimists are to be believed) if he had been taken to the gay assemblage on the new

Charles, Fourth Duke of Richmond.

376

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

course just completed at the beginning of the nineteenth century at Goodwood, close
to the spot where Lillywhite and Broadbridge first learnt round-arm bowling from
Lambert, and where in 1801 the Duke of Richmond's house was crammed with
guests, and big luncheon parties were in full swing in half-a dozen tents, where " ice"
is actually mentioned (and "pickpockets") among the other luxuries, and the day's
sport was concluded in the Theatre at Chichester or at a ball in the Assembly Rooms.
And even when such a plunger as Colonel Hellish had to sell his stud, it was
difficult to realise a " pecuniary scarcity " in the 950 guineas brought by S treat ham
• , -' - Lass in open auction, in the 1,200

guineas given for Eagle by Volunteer,
or the 1, 800 guineas for Smuggler by
Hambletonian. Nor in the career of
such a lavish sportsman as Colonel
Thornton, whose portrait hangs now
at the Durdans, could many signs ot
" dreary gloom " have been detected,
for on both sides of the Channel this
ardent devotee of every out-door
pastime spent large sums every day,
from the fortune he inherited soon
after he left Charterhouse, in hunting,
shooting, fishing, riding, and every
form of entertainment, with Major,
his greyhound, Merryman, the beagle,
Pitch, the terrier, Juno, the queen of
Hon. Charles F. Greville. the twenty brace of setters and five

and thirty pointers which composed his " partridge-preparations." When neither
racing nor shooting happened to be going the Earls of Winchilsea and Darnley
would bet a thousand guineas on a county match at Lord's, between elevens who
wore round hats, knee breeches and pigtails, and were scored for by a pair of patient
gentlemen with a slate.

The jockey of the last half of the eighteenth century had not quite reached that
finished correctness of attire which is now customary; for though, as we have seen,
colours were introduced in the early days of the Jockey Club, old fashions died hard,
and many still tucked the skirts of the old bodycoat into their breeches, flaps and

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER.

3/7

buttons and all, and wore nothing smarter on their legs than knickerbockers strapped
below the knee, with white cotton stockings, and black low shoes. A black velvet
cap with a long French peak and a bow of satin ribbon at the back was stuck on
their long hair, and round their necks they wore an ample neckcloth of white
cambric tied behind. The smartness of the gentlemen-riders who accompanied the
Prince soon helped, however, to change all this at Newmarket, Ascot, or Goodwood,
even if a rougher toilet still lingered on among the hardy Tykes ; and most of the
famous jockeys whose portraits are reproduced in this and the following chapter
will be found to have got very much
closer to modern ideals than the
costume just described might have
suggested. It was, indeed, a period
of transition in more ways than that
of dress. In the picture by Sir Joshua
Reynolds (opposite page 243), which
shows Lady Sarah Lennox (after-
wards Lady Bunbury) leaning out of
a window at Holland House, the girl
walking with Charles P"ox in the
garden is Lady Susan Fox-Strangways,
who ran away with O'Brien the actor
and lived happily ever after. For the
benefit of one of her nieces this lady
once wrote out a little memoir of what
she had seen that was worth re-
cording, and of the changes in social
life between 1760 and 1818. They will suggest, from a novel and refreshing stand-
point, a few of those alterations in the background of the Turf which must be taken
for granted as we approach nearer and nearer to the Victorian epoch, and few are
more qualified to give a hint from behind the scenes than the lady who heard
Charles Fox say, " C'est egal " (the phrase that lasted him to the very end; as a
consolation for her disappointment of the Birthday Ball when George II. died; who
watched Lafayette at the Opera, " going to America to fight us " ; who saw-
Washington and Franklin, "both of English stock, but changed by the climate";
who observed that " 100,000 bibles were given to the people, and salons at the same

Augustus. Third Earl cf Bristol .

378

3,

!•*

.2

•5

"S
5

!
«,

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER. 379

time built at our theatres for the reception and entertainment of prostitutes and their
attendant swains. This one may call neutralising." Its bad effect upon fashionable
attendance at the playhouses she notices very strongly. But there were many other
changes.

By pcrtnissinn nf GeorgC IV.

Walker and Bmtall.

By 1815 " assemblys are become so numerous that two or three of a night it is
common to go to ... if it is not quite crowded it is not thought good or
agreeable ... no cards are admitted. Music, in which all are proficients, has
taken their place." This was very different to the old days when a crowd was rare
except at Bedford House, Northumberland House, Norfolk House, Lady
Hilsborough's, or Lady Shelburne's, and when the intimate circle, within which

380 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

every one was intimately known, only asked enough guests to make themselves
thoroughly comfortable over the cards. Much the same alteration was observable
at Court. Instead of select and small drawing-rooms once a week, the custom of
three or four huge and ill-regulated gatherings each season began ; Parliament met
as late as four in the afternoon, which was the hour that used to mark not only
dinner but cessation of all business ; the change was great to dinner between seven
and eight of an evening, and most of the entertainment done by candlelight.

Even more striking were the parallel developments Lady Susan observes in
manners and in language. Rudeness and carelessness became the fashion, perhaps
because duelling grew rarer as the nineteenth century grew older. " Every man,
tradesman or farmer, is Esquire, and every prentice girl a young lady. . . There
are fewer ladies good horsewomen owing to their driving much in open carriages,
which make them greater rovers about the kingdom than formerly." New phrases
came in, too, which showed exactly the reverse tendency, the " delicacy " which
Swift satirised when he made his famous definition of a "nice" man. "No one,"
says Lady Susan, "can say ' breeding,' or ' with child,' or 'lying-in.' ' In the family
way' and 'confinement' have taken their place. ' Cholic ' and ' bowells ' are
exploded words. ' Stomach ' signifies everything . . . . ' Fair Cyprians ' and
' tender ' or ' interesting connexions ' have succeeded to ' women on the town ' and
' kept mistresses." Virtue, in fact, might be pretty much the same ; but character
was certainly "much less attended to."

Lady Susan may have looked with toleration at some lady-charioteers of Brighton,
Mrs. Sergison, coming in at full-speed from Cuckfield, or Miss Elliott driving a team
of spanking greys out of the gates of Brighton Place. But what her opinions could
have been concerning Letty Lade we can only faintly surmise, and it may be doubted
whether even her admiration for a smart horsewoman would have led her to forgive
the fascinating Miss Alicia Meynell, who, as Mrs. Thornton, rode two famous
matches in 1804 and 1805, and is celebrated by contemporary poetry in the following
laudatory stanza :—

" With spirits like fire see her mount the gay prad,
And the cheers and the smiles make her heart light and glad.
Mrs. Thornton's the fav'rite through thick and through thin,
And the swells and the jockeys all bet that she'll win."

On the first occasion, on the 25th of August, at York, she rode Colonel
Thornton's chestnut Vinagrillo (aged) against Mr. Flint's Brown Tkornvillc, by

HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER. 381

Volunteer, owner up. Nearly a hundred thousand persons are said to have assembled,
and the Sixth Light Dragoons, who were in York at the time, had to be kept on the
course to preserve order. Attired in a leopard-coloured bodice with blue sleeves, she
took the lead and kept it for three miles, after which her horse went lame, and the
gentleman won. There was some acrimonious correspondence, and she finally
challenged Brown Thornville on the same conditions next year, " against any one he
may choose to select out of three horses I shall hunt this season." In 1805,
however, we find her riding Colonel Thornton's Louise, by Pegasus, against Mr.
Bloomfield's Allegro, with no less a jockey than Francis Buckle himself, who was
made to carry 1331. 6lb. to her gst. 6lb., over two miles, for a gold cup value 700
guineas. On this occasion she wore a pink cap and waistcoat, nankeen skirts,
purple shoes, and embroidered stockings. She again took the lead, and after having
been passed by the famous jockey, won by half a neck. But Buckle is said to have
remarked afterwards that he " never had such difficulty to lose a race as that one,
compared with the ease of winning certain others."

It will be a fitting continuation to this record of jockeys if I now turn to one who
bore the highest character of any before or since his time — Francis Buckle; and in
doing so I gladly acknowledge the very courteous and efficient assistance rendered
me by the grand-daughters of this illustrious rider, by whose kindness I have been
enabled to give my readers the first picture ever published of his saddle and other
personal relics, and also to look through for their benefit many family records which
have not hitherto been permitted to see the light.

Frank Buckle's Saddle.

VOL. II.

382

CHAPTER XV.

FRANCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS.

Eques ipso melior Bellerophonte.

T N my thirteenth chapter (p. 338) I had occasion to describe the great match

between Hambletonian and Diamond at Newmarket, in which Francis Buckle

rode the winner for Sir Harry Vane-Tempest. The beaten jockey was Dennis

Fitzpatrick, and the two were rivals for a considerable time. Another great match
in which the pair were pitted against each other was when Gaoler by Volunteer beat

Orlando, .and this time Fitzpatrick won, after a race of which an eye-witness says that
" each finessed to get a pull till neither had a run left, and Gaoler only won by
staying longer than the other. The men and horses seemed screwed together and
so exhausted in the struggle that they appeared to be contending the race for some
distance after they had passed the winning post." Dennis Fitzpatrick, who made
his first reputation on the Curragh, and whose father was an Irish tenant of Lord
Clermont, rode chiefly for his lordship, for the Earl of Egremont, and for Mr.
Cookson. He scored a classic victory before Buckle had that honour, for he won
the Oaks in 1787 and on three subsequent occasions, but he never got a Leger,
and only one Derby, that of 1805, on Lord Egremont's Cardinal Beaufort, when his
English rival's fame was fairly at its zenith. He died in 1806, in his forty-second
year, from a cold caught after wasting.

Buckle always spoke of Dennis with great admiration, as a master of his art,
putting him in the same class as the elder Chifney, who won the Oaks of 1/90, and
both Derby and Oaks as well in 1789. That "double event" may well constitute
one of the most cherished ambitions of a jockey's life, and if we omit the case of
Saunders on Sir Charles Bunbury's Eleanor, as we should do that of Charlton on
Mr. I'Anson's Blink Bonny in 1857, for the reason that the feat has not quite the
same value when accomplished on the same animal in each race, this achievement of
old Sam Chifney on the Duke of Bedford's Skyscraper and Lord Egremont's Tagg

03

s
• 2

•2

o

384 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

stands first on the list. Eleanor s year intervened ; but Buckle was the first to
emulate old Chifney exactly, when in 1802 he won the Derby on the Duke of
Grafton's Tyrant, and the Oaks on Mr. Wastell's Scotia. These races really put the
crown upon his fame, which had been growing steadily throughout the previous
decade ; for so unlikely were both horses' chances of victory considered, that there
was seven to one cheerfully offered about Tyrant, and Scotia, whose owner never
liked her, was only made favourite at the last minute by her mount, in a race
which roused much more betting than that of the previous day. In the Derby
Mr. Wilson's Young Eclipse, considered the best horse of his year, made play, and was
hotly challenged over every inch of the first mile by Sir Charles Bunbury's Orlando.
Buckle thought they were bound to tire, and waited with such success that he was
able to rush up at the finish and win on one of the worst horses that ever secured
" the Blue Riband." The next day proved Buckle's skill to be on as high a level as
his judgment, for he had asked to ride the mare himself. Three times between
Tattenham Corner and the finish was Scotia beaten, and three times did Buckle bring
her up again, and at last, " with knee and thigh and tightened rein," lifted her home
and screwed her in first by a head, fairly snatching the race out of the fire by fine and
resolute riding. The Derby of 1803 showed a very different finish to either of these,
for Clift was so far ahead that he " trotted past the post like a butcher boy going his
rounds.' But in 1806 a terrific set-to was seen between J. Shepherd on Lord Foley's
Paris and T. Goodison on Lord Egremont's Trafalgar, in which both horses were
neck and neck from Tattenham Corner, and were practically ridden to a standstill
twenty yards before the judge's chair, but Shepherd made a desperate push and won
by half a head. The double victory of Derby and Oaks was carried off, however, by
Goodison both in 1813 and 1815, his mounts being Smolensko and Music in the first
year ; Whisker and Minuet (both by Waxy, and owned by the Duke of Grafton) in
the second But Buckle equalled this score when in 1823 (Goodison's Leger year with
Barefoot] he won the Derby with Mr. Udny's Emilius by Orvillc (who was headed
by Tancred at Tattenham Corner) and the Oaks with the Duke of Grafton's Zinc.

Jockeys will always remember the next year, 1824, because Jem Robinson made
a bet, and naturally got long odds, that he would win both Derby and Oaks and also
get married, all within the week. Crutch Robinson is said to have betted a
thousand to ten against the treble event, though he might have learnt something
about Jem's luck after the terrible lesson the " knowing ones " had received from
his mount Azor($Q to i against), which won the Derby of 1817 against The Student,

FRANCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS. ?8;

O J

with Buckle up, at J to 4. Robinson's orders had merely been to "go as fast and as
far as you can." So when the favourite was dead beat at half a mile, and Jem found
himself all alone in front, he went on and won, though Young Wizard ran him close
at the finish, and Azor never had the pluck to start again. It was only 4 to i
against Sir John Shelley's chestnut Cedric, by Phantom, in 1824, and after three
false starts he made the running, kept the lead, and came in first. On the Fridav
Jem was up again on Lord Jersey's Cobweb, by Phantom, an odds-on favourite,
who won by a length. Presumably, Jem was a favourite, too, in the last of the
three performances he had backed himself to win, for he was married within the
time, and no doubt Crutch Robinson's thousand came in very handy for the
furniture.

It was no small feather in Buckle's cap that he was known to have given many
hints to Jem Robinson during the thirteen years that brilliant young jockey spent
in Robson's stables ; and many a match did master and pupil
fight out against each other on the turf. The struggle when
Buckle rode Mr. Udny's Abjer, and Jem was up on Lord
Exeter's Ardrossan, in 1821, was perhaps the most memorable
of all, and the punishment which the savage son of Vicissitude
then received he never forgot, even when Robinson came into
his box two years afterwards, for it was a case of Mu/ey Edris
and Fred Archer, only rather worse. Jem's matchless seat in

Jem Robinson.

the saddle will never be forgotten while men remember such
finishes as that of Tom Aldcroft on Lord of the Isles for the Two Thousand, or of Job
Marson when he split Cotherstone and Prizefighter in the St. Leger, and drove Nutwith
home first by a head. It was with Job, who was on Voltigeur, that Robinson ran
his memorable dead heat on Russborough for the St. Leger of 1850, swooping down
on the Derby winner in the last few strides in as fine an exemplification of his style as
he had given in all the sixty years of his life. His equable temper was another
valuable asset, and it was as much owing to this as anything that he was able to
outride the famous Bill Scott for the Derby of 1828 after the dead-heat between
Cadland and The Colonel, which is illustrated in the frontispiece of this volume.
It is sad to think that the rider of Azor, Cedric, Middle foil, Mameluke, Cad/and and
Bay Middle/on for the Derby ; of Matilda, Margrave and Russborough for the
St. Leger ; of Augusta and Cobweb for the Oaks, and of nine Two Thousand
winners, might have died in the workhouse and left little better for his widow had

386

s"
55

FKAXCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS.

387

not the Dukes of Bedford and Rutland intervened. No jockey of his time had
been quite so successful, or ridden with so much dash and grace, his style being a
combination of Sam Chifney's rush with Frank Buckle's art of waiting. The latter
he once even managed to gammon when he was still in his 'teens, over a finish on
the Heath, after which Buckle paid him the compliment of telling him to " try that
on somebody else next time." Such was his skill in the saddle that while Cobweb
was running for the Oaks, and the gag she was wearing got entangled with her bit,
Jem leant forward, took it off, and won. His accident when riding Lord Clifden's
two-year-old, Feramorz, in a match at Newmarket, when he broke his thigh, no
doubt contributed towards shortening his life, for he had never taken as much
thought for his own morrow as for his employers' horses. But
his prowess will live in one of the best poems ever written about
the English Turf, for it was his fine finish on Mr. Petre's
Matilda against Sam Chifney in 1827 that inspired Sir Francis
Hastings Doyle to write the most spirited stanzas on the
St. Leger ever penned. At the time Doyle was an Eton boy
on a visit to Sir William Cooke, and got knocked off his pony
by the branch of a tree on his way to the course, but he arrived,
and "The Doncaster St. Leger" was the result. Matilda
made the running, but Mameluke crept up inch by inch : —

; He's sixth— he's fifth— he's fourth— he's third,
And on, like some glancing meteor-flame
The stride of the Derby winner came. . .
One other bound — once more — 'tis done ;
Right up to her the horse has run,
And head to head and stride for stride,
Newmarket's hope and Yorkshire's pride,
Like horses harnessed side by side,

Are struggling to the goal. . . .

He's beat ! he's beat ! — by heaven the mare !

Just on the post, her spirit rare,

When Hope herself might well despair ;

When Time had not a breath to spare ;

With bird-like dash shoots clean away,

And by half a length has gained the day."

It may be doubted whether Jem Robinson ever valued any of his subsequent
triumphs quite so highly as that " treble event" of 1824 which was completed by
his marriage. The next jockey to carry off both Derby and Oaks in the same
year was James Chappie, who won the first on Mr. Sadler's Dangerous, and the
second on Sir Mark Wood's Vespa in 1833. Chappie was great at country meetings,
and scored a second Derby on Amato for Sir Gilbert Heathcote, whose colours he
preferred when his profession had become rather a choice than a necessity. After
retiring once, he came out again at nearly fifty years of age, and won the Cesarewitch
for Mr. Payne. Sam Day won both Derby and Oaks in 1846 with Mr. Gully's

388

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

Pyrrhus the First and Mendicant. The next year Jim Templeman scored a record
by achieving the double event twice running — in 1847 with Cossack and Sir Joseph
Hawley's Miami, and in 1848 with Surplice and Cymba. Frank Butler followed in
1852 with Daniel O'Rourke and Songstress, and 1857 was Blink Bonny' s year.

But we must not wander any further from the jockey who roused these memories
of a double event which he had himself twice achieved. Francis Buckle was born
at Newmarket, where he was baptised on July 18, 1766. He was the son of a
saddler in the town, who came of an old Westmoreland family that traced their
lineage back to a Lord Mayor of London in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. His
parents died when he was very young, and both he and his brother William (two

years his junior) were
brought up by their aunt,
a clever and good wo-
man, the wife of the land
agent on a Yorkshire pro-
perty, to whom both bro-
thers acknowledged their
possession of the high
standard of truth and
honour for which they
were distinguished. But
no saddler's trade would
do for Frank, and by the
time he was seventeen
he was not only back at

Newmarket in Mr. Richard Vernon's stables, but riding in public on that
gentleman's b. c. Wolf by Florizcl, out of Fox's dam by Moses, at under four
stone, the result of his having caught his master's eye by excellent riding in
several private trials previously. Not only did he prove already that he " had
a head," but as he grew older his weight did not unduly increase. In fact,
it used to be said that " there was nothing big about him except his heart
and his nose." He was also known as " The Pocket Hercules," and the numerous
rhyming punsters of the period rejoiced over the opportunities suggested by his
name. . " A Buckle large was formerly the rage," sang one of them, " A Buckle
small now fills our sporting page." He was certainly remarkably strong for his

"Banker" (with Butler pointing to him).

FRANCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS. 389

size, and enjoyed the inestimable advantage of being able to keep himself down
without wasting, the dangerous process that has killed off so many jockeys, however
skilfully the result of artificially decreasing the natural weight has been attained.
It must be remembered, however, that a jockey's life in the old clays was very
different to what it is when railways and motor cars and private carriages of every
sort whirl our luxurious horsemen up and down the country. William Day was
able to compare the two, and asks what modern jockeys would think of " riding over
Newmarket Heath with a light saddle round their waist, in their boots and breeches,
carrying their own saddles to the scales, and saddling their own horses ... or
riding from Exeter to Stockbridge on a small pony with their light saddle tied round
their waist after the races, and arriving at the latter place in time to ride there ; and
then starting in the same fashion for the Southampton Races." Frank Buckle
did more than his share of this sort of journeying, for after he had taken up his
residence at Peterborough he frequently started at an early hour to ride into
Newmarket, for a trial, rode home again and completed the ninety-two miles
(besides his work on the course) by six o'clock in the evening. For this he found it
necessary to keep some of the best hacks in the kingdom, and the constant exercise
involved no doubt helped as much as anything to keep him hard and light.

Buckle's first wife, by whom he had no issue, lies buried at Newmarket ; but in
1807 ne married Miss Jane Thornton, of Lichfield, and after first residing at Orton
Longueville, in Huntingdonshire, where his three sons were born, he moved to
Peterborough, where he occupied one of Lord Fitzwilliam's farms, and very much
enjoyed stocking it with prime cattle in his few intervals of leisure. It was here
that he returned to die, after having gone to Bury St. Edmunds for a time, in
order to give his sons the benefit of education at the grammar-school there. All
three of them he left comfortably off, and though the youngest, who lived to be
ninety, was but nineteen at his death, the boy had been put in the way of becoming a
solicitor, while the two elder brothers took up the professions of a brewer and
a druggist, respectively. His second wife, who survived him several years, was
buried in Nunhead Cemetery, Camberwell ; and though a kinsman of his, known
as "young Buckle," showed fair proficiency as a jockey, the rest of his family were
carefully guarded from the possible evils of the profession he had chosen himself to
adorn, not only by being kept during their youth at some distance from its
metropolis, but by being actually forbidden to mention the subject of racing in their
conversation. The father need not have feared any rumour about himself coming
VOL. ii. 3 F

390 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

to their ears, for no jockey has ever enjoyed such an unblemished reputation alike
for horsemanship and morals. After his double victory on Emilius and Zinc,
the contemporary chronicler burst into poetry in fine style, exclaiming :—

" Though long by the beaux reduced to disgrace,
The Buckle's the gem and the pride of the race ;
For lo ! the bold jockey's neat dexterous strokes
Have crowned him the conqueror of Derby and Oaks.
When backed by this rider's consummate address,
The high-mettled racer feels sure of success.
Eclipse was the horse of all horses that ran,
But whate'er be our horse now, Frank Buckle's the man.
Oh ! where is the match for a treasure so rare ?
Look round the wide world and ye'll ne'er find a pair ;
For trained to the Turf, he stands quite alone,
And a. pair of such Buckles never was known."

He won the Oaks nine times, the Derby five times, two St. Legers, and "all the
good things at Newmarket," as he wrote on the whip he sent to Germany (p. 304).
" The Governor," as his Newmarket friends called him, had actually earned the
honour of being placed in the incorruptible trio of " the only three inflexibly honest
jockeys" Mr. John Gully had ever known, and this gentleman's experience was as
wide as it was varied. When it came to a fine point between tired horses after a
long gallop, it was usually " 6 to 4 on Old Frank " to the very end of his career, and
very few were the jockeys who, as solemn old John Day was always proud of saying
of himself, could " get over Buckle " in a finish at Newmarket. Man and boy, he
had ridden for over fifty years before his spotless and honourable career came to a
close within three months of his last race, and to the end of his life he thought Lord
Grosvenor's Violante the best animal he ever rode. His skill and nerve remained, un-
daunted to the end, and when he weighed in for the last time on Mr. Udhy's
Conservator he only drew 8st. ;lb., the top weight in the race of Saturday,
November 6, 1831, at Newmarket.

No one was his peer for endurance in the saddle, at that time, save, perhaps, Sir
Tatton Sykes and Squire Osbaldeston ; and it is not a little curious that the latter
should have been finishing his great 2OO-mile match against time on one side of the
Ditch, while Buckle was riding his last race on the other. " The Pocket Hercules,"
as game as ever, trotted off on his cob, as soon as he had weighed in, with his saddle
strapped round his coat, to give " the Squire " a cheer as he finished on Trail by, and
very nearly accepted a challenge "to ride for twenty-five days or till either of them
dropped." The card of that Houghton Meeting is before me, and as the information

FXAXCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS,

391

given for that day may be of interest in its original form, it is reproduced in the
Appendix.

The name of Mr. Vansittart occurs as a winning owner in the first match
after Buckle's race, and I therefore take this opportunity of correcting some errors
that have been published concerning the racing members of this familv. The owner

Francis Buckle.

of Rockingham, Pcrion, and the Rubini who beat Cloudesley in the card mentioned,
and came in fourth in the Handicap Sweepstakes on the Wednesday of the same
meeting, was Mr. Arthur Vansittart, who was on the English Turf between 1829 and
1835, sporting orange colours. He was a cornet in the Second Life Guards, and
brother-in-law to Sir Joseph Hawley, and when he gave up racing in England he

392 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

founded the Racing Club at Florence, the Jockey Club of Italy. His cousin, Mr.
Henry Vansittart, of Kirkleatham in Yorkshire, was a member of the Jockey Club
from about 1810 to 1828, and his colours were lilac all that time. When he resumed
racing in 1835 he assumed the orange jacket of his cousin, and became well known
as the breeder of Van Tromp, Tlie Flying Dutchman, and other famous horses.

Buckle's last appearance was not perhaps a very brilliant one for the great
jockey who had ridden Champion by Pot8os to victory in both the St. Leger and the
Derby of 1800; who scored the great Doncaster race on Mr. Mellish's Sancho ; and
who had won so skilfully on Lord Exeter's Green Mantle in the Second October
Meeting of 1828, after the mare had played all sorts of fantastic tricks at the start.
But it showed, as nothing else could do, that he had lived straight all his life, and
could ride straight within so short a period of his death. For he was dead before
three more months were done, and he attained an honour that no other jockey I ever
heard of has received, either because none has been worthy, or because the pen that
wrote it has never found a successor, I mean an obituary notice in the " Quarterly
Review." It is worth quoting more fully than is usually done. " He is in his grave,
but he has left behind him not merely an example for all young jockeys to follow, but
proof that honesty is the best policy, for he died in the esteem of all the racing
world, and in the possession of a comfortable independence acquired by his
profession. What the Greek said of Fabricius might be said of him — that it would
have been as difficult to have turned the sun from his course as to have turned him
from his duty." He rode at various times for Earl Grosvenor, Sir Charles Bunbury,
Honourable George Watson. Mr. Cookson, Colonel Mellish, the Duke of Grafton,
Mr. Udny, and Mr. Durantl. It was after heavily backing a horse belonging to this
last-named gentleman at Lewes that Buckle found himself retained to ride another in
the same race. Greatly to his credit, he won, and was literally "cut off with a
shilling." How to get back he did not know till a gentleman offered him a seat in
his carriage, and at the next toll-bar Frank had to confess his temporary destitution,
throwing his last shilling to a beggar they met on the road, with the remark that it
would never do to "take that into Newmarket."

He died on the 5th of February, 1832, and his grave is in the churchyard of
Orton Longueville, an altar-tomb with iron railings round it. In his last years his
estimable character became even more evident in his private life near Peterborough,
where he lived as a quiet country gentleman, abhorring publicity, giving more to
charity than could possibly be expected of a man who had earned all he possessed at

FRANCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS. 393

the risk of his life, and enjoying at the end the fruits of a temperance and wisdom
which had both undergone sore temptation in his early days. A quiet hackney to
watch the hounds occasionally, a carriage for a gentle drive, a walk with his favourite
terrier round his neat garden and grounds, these comprised his simple pleasures,
after he had taken care that his sons were well started in their different paths of life.
He was blessed by the dispensation of a short illness and a sudden death, and all his
friends endorsed the epitaph : —

" No better rider ever crossed a horse ;
Honour his guide, he died without remorse.
Jockeys attend — from his example learn
The meed that honest worth is sure to earn."

The saddle I reproduce in these pages has been preserved, with other relics of
him, by his grand-daughters. The linings and girths had to be cut away in the
'seventies. On the inside is the label : " VVestley — Saddle and Cap maker —
Newmarket."

Remarkable as their talents undoubtedly were, it would be difficult to award to
the Chifneys, either father or son, such praise in every line of life as was so cheerfully
and universally bestowed on Buckle, and it may be feared that young Sam's
reputation will never quite get over the suspicions involved by Manuella s running
in the Derby and Oaks of 1812. Sam won the Oaks himself in 1807, 1811, 1816,
1819, and 1825 ; and the Derby in 1818 and 1820. He was often too lazy to take
a mount that involved a long journey from Newmarket, and when he had made an
engagement to ride a trial in Yorkshire, the carriage often waited for him in vain at
the cross-roads, for he was rarely on the Coach when he was wanted. He had sat as
a boy on the knee of the Prince of Wales and received a guinea from the Royal hand.
He did not die in a debtors' ward like his father, but his last years at Brighton
were only rendered tolerable by a pension from his nephew, Frank Butler. At a
time when the intercourse between jockeys and their noble employers was far less
intimate than in the days which roused the wrath of the late Captain Machell, the first
Duke of Cleveland, who was as great a Turfite as his second son, Lord William
Powlett, astonished his contemporaries by inviting Sam Chifney to pass many weeks
with him every winter at Raby Castle, and they dined together alone nearly every
night, after a day with the Raby Hounds, at which the Duke easily outstripped the
jockey, for Sam was always timid across country, while Lord Darlington, who was
given his step in the peerage owing to the support he gave to Lord Grey's Reform

394 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

Bill, was one of the hardest riders to hounds that ever crossed a horse. He was
also considered to be rather an unscrupulous bettor, in days when Robert Ridsdale
and half-a-dozen bookies generally controlled such transactions. But the "Jesuit of
the Ring," as the Duke was called, was not responsible for much that was attributed
to him, in spite of his friendships with Sam Chifney and Billy Pierse. His third son,
Lord Harry Vane, married Lady Dalmeny, who, as Lady Catherine Wilhelmina
Stanhope, was one of the bridesmaids at the wedding of Queen Victoria. Before
Lord Harry Vane succeeded to the Dukedom he bought Battle Abbey from the
Websters, the historic estate which had previously belonged to Lord Montagu
of Cowdray, a famous Turfite of the seventeenth century whose old " Montagu
Mare " is to be found in all the pedigrees. The Duchess of Cleveland, who has
but lately died, was therefore a very extraordinary link between the past and present
history of English Racing, for her son, the present Lord Rosebery, won the
Derby as Prime Minister. She was born within those first
two decades of the nineteenth century during which Sam
Chifney won all his classic races, and within which there first
saw the light men famous in such different paths as Tennyson,
Browning, Thackeray, Dickens, Beaconsfield, Gladstone,
Newman, Ruskin, and D-arwin. Chifney 's only epitaph conveyed
his greatest triumph, for it consisted of the words, " Of New-
market"; and his friends long afterwards asserted that it was
" worth a tenner just to see him canter an awkward horse."
Sam's method of suddenly pulling his horse together, and then bringing it along
with his own tremendous rush, half a length in the last three strides, was all done so
instantaneously that you never realised anything like the visible exhibition of
power in horse and man by which Jem Robinson stole his short head on
the post. His nephew, Frank Butler, had more of Jem's style than of his uncle's,
and very few men have been able to imitate Sam Chifney since. He used
to lie straight behind his man so that the unhappy leader never knew from
which side the rush was coming. He gained his first Newmarket laurels at
the First Spring Meeting of 1805, when he won the New Claret Stakes on
Lord Darlington's Pavilion against Arnull on Hannibal, Buckle on Sancho, and Clift
on Pc/isse, before he was nineteen, and the betting was 7 to i against his mount, very
much as he had startled the Knavesmire crowd by beating Jackson, Clift, and Peirse,
on Lady Brongh. After this he went ahead fast, and beat Buckle again in the

FRANCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS. 395

match against Petronel, though "Old Frank" had his revenge soon after, on
Violantc, in the Selim match. This Violante must have always been rather a
sore point with Buckle, for she was turned out of the stud which Pratt kept for
Lord Grosvenor at Hare Park, where Mr. Brodrick Cloete breeds and trains
to-day, and was bought by Frank at ,£50, only with the result that her first
owner at once changed his mincl, and Buckle had reluctantly to give her up.
One of Sam's best races was his victory on Wings for the Oaks, in which he
waited while Will Arnull made the running on Tontine, and was beaten by Pastime
TOO yards from home, and then rushed Wings ahead of both in the last three or
four strides. This, and many another victory, he won chiefly owing to his
knowledge of pace, which let him creep up all the way, and really settle the
verdict long before the crowd saw anything of him. When the Prince reappeared
on the Turf in 1826, with Delme Radcliffe as manager, William Edwards as
trainer, and Jack Ratford as factotum, it was a Chifney again who rode his Dervise
for the Oatlands in the next year ; and it was a good deal owing to that name
and all it meant, that, as Prince and King, in his twenty seasons on the Turf,
George IV. could call a score of 313 races, including a Derby, ten Cups, and
thirty King's Plates. He never liked the idea of Newmarket again, after the
Escape business. Sam was a silent man, as well as a lazy one, when he was off
a horse, and he loved a quiet day's shooting, or an afternoon with his gamecocks,
and his pet foxes in their artificial earths fenced in with wire on Fidget Farm,
named after the colt on which he first had a winning ride. But when King-
George IV. was fairly racing again, Sam would go anywhere to get one of the
Royal mounts, which he occasionally shared with Robinson, Dockeray, Nelson,
and Pavis ; and when the King had bought The Colonel for 4,000 guineas, and
Zinganee had beaten him, with Chifney up, he asked Chifney which of the three
he preferred, these two or Fleur-de-Lis. He was on his death-bed when the
Chifneys won the Derby with Priam, but Jack Ratford was charged to bring
back the news post-haste to the Royal chamber the moment the horses had passed
the post. Mr. John Kent, writing early in the twentieth century as the oldest trainer
alive, recorded his opinion that Priam was the most perfect racehorse he had ever
seen, more sound in constitution, and better formed than Ormonde. He was a
beautiful dark bay with black legs and slight tips of white upon each hind heel, and a
feather on each side of his neck. A number of false starts were made in his Derby,
on purpose to upset the favourite, but he caught the leaders in 400 yards. Priam

FRANCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS. 397

was so docile, too, that John Kent frequently rode him, as a small boy, at
exercise,

The Duke of York loved racing almost as much as his Royal brother, but Beau
Brummell was more of a " carriage man," in spite of his visits to the Duke of Rutland
at Cheveley, where Colonel McCalmont lies, so lately buried. His favourite jockey
was T. Goodison, who won the Derby for him on Moses, a horse who was afterwards
sent to the stud of the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, father of His Royal Highness
Prince Christian, by whose kindness I am enabled to reproduce several exquisite
lithographs of Moses and the rest of his father's stud, drawn by the grandfather of
Emil Adam. Moses was first bought at the Duke's death for 1,100 guineas by the
Duke of Richmond.

Sam's connection with Lord Darlington began with the Pavilion race already
mentioned, but perhaps his cleverest win under those colours was when Merry-go-
round beat Sorcery, the Oaks winner, and his greatest finish against Jem Robinson
was on Trustee for the Claret Stakes in 1833. He could never manage a St. Leger,
rumour said owing to the horror the Northern jockeys had of a Newmarket man
carrying off their best prize, and the false starts in Matilda's year were entirely put
down to this reason ; and Sam always believed that Marcus had been actually
poisoned. Some thought that he waited too long on Voltaire, and so lost the race,
but he never imagined Rowton could stand the pace, and the bruising, on which Bill
Scott seemed determined that year. But Mr. ThornhiU's opinion of Chifney never
varied during all the time they were connected, and the name of his Derby colt, Sam,
commemorated their friendship. This low and lengthy son of Scud ran his race in a
cloud of dust, after ten false starts, and Chifney only waited till he saw Prince Paul
was done, and then went on and won. Sam's luck in the white body and red sleeves
did not cease till an Oaks had been sandwiched between two consecutive Derbys,
and Sailor had won in a storm. He lost his last Oaks, on Example, to his nephew,
Frank Butler, in 1843.

Luckily for us, Ben Marshall the painter was a great ally of the Chifneys, and the
fine sketch I reproduce is from a painting by that artist in Lord Rosebery's collection
at the Durdans. It shows the long, easy seat which was almost reproduced again
in the excellent picture, also given in these pages, of Fred Archer on Paradox; and
I must confess to the wish that a finish could be seen nowadays between Archer
sitting well back, and driving his horse before him, and f. Reiff well forward,
whipping underhand.

VOL. ii. 30

398 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

On the same canvas, with Ben Marshall's sketch of Chifney, is Jem Robinson,
and Wheatley, who won the Derby on Prince Leopold and Spaniel, rode Velocipede for
the St. Leger, and had as much difficulty as Chifney in wasting, owing to his height.
The last of "the Druid's" famous quartet was Harry Edwards, whose victories in
Yorkshire with the Fitzwilliam, Kelburne, and Houldsworth colours were as brilliant
as they were terrific. He was one of " Tiny's " many sons. Another was William,
who won his maiden race at Newmarket in 1800, and was kneed on to the raiis by
Jackson in the Doncaster Cup, on Orvillc, when he was little more than a feather.
He was the last trainer for George IV., and at the King's death received the lease, of
the Palace Stables at Newmarket, and a pension. A third brother, George, got
three hundred guineas from Mr. Watt for winning the One Thousand on Caret, and he
also won the Derby on P/wsp/iorus. He picked out Beggarman from the Goodwood
stable, and trained him to win the Goodwood Cup for the Duke of Orleans, whose
sudden death left him placel'ess and pensionless, and practically
broke his heart. He had a high courage and was a very bold
rider, and was employed to the last by the Duke of Beaufort
and General Peel. But one-eyed Harry was the best jockey of
the family, with great power, and a habit of sitting back in his
finishes and spurring in front of his girths. He was almost as
neat as Sam Darling in his dress, and rode his first race against

Robinson on Antonia. His length of arm gave him great
George Edwards.

leverage, and he seemed almost to carry his horse along in a tight

finish like that on Don John, who was so done up after the race that he could hardly
be got to his stables. But unluckily Harry, for all his kid gloves, was one of those
who "would rather nobble for a pony than make a hundred by fair means," and he
pulled Epirus at Wolverhampton under the very eyes of Bill Scott, so he had to retire
to France, where he was too much even for the foreigners, and returned to Carlisle,
where he buried in a pauper's grave a name that might have been one of the most
brilliant on the Turf.

In the other sketch by Ben Marshall, which I am fortunate enough to be able to
reproduce through the kindness of Lord Rosebery, you may see Arnull and Goodison
in their habits as they rode. Both are names which go very far in the history of
racing, for an Arnull rode the first Derby winner, and a Goodison (" Hellfire Dick"
to wit) was " Old O.'s" favourite match-rider. In the list of classic winners we
find Sam Arnull, John Arnull, and William Arnull. They have no St. Leger to their

FRANC1S BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS.

399

credit, but they can claim twelve Derbys and two victories in the Oaks, of which
1796 was the " double event." Bill, nephew to Sam, who rocle for Lord Foley and
the Prince of Wales, was a bit of a miser, as you seem to see in his face, and
preferred saving money to either cock-fighting or coursing, and selling a horse to
anything else. He loved a winning mount, whether it was a race or a trial, and
consequently was not of as much use to the Exeter stable as he might have been,
but his reputation stood very high, in spite of his never being able to outride Jem
Robinson. He was only a. year senior to Sam Chifney, but he died nearly nineteen
years before him, when trainer to Lord Litchfielcl, the very year before Elis won the
Leger. His last Derby was on Blucher in 1814, and he showed off the horse to the
Field-Marshal at Newmarket next summer. Though only in the second class, it
will never be forgotten that it was he who was picked with Thomas Goodison to ride
Filho da Puta and Sir Joshua in their great match in 1816, out of all the Northern
and Southern jockeys of their time. Thomas was the son of the great Dick, and was
put up instead of John Jackson in this match, for which Jackson was only consoled
by the news that the substitute had been beaten by a head. But Goodison was
worth the place ; he was especially liked by the Duke of York, and he rode more
winners than any one else for the Duke of Grafton. He won the Derby in 1809,
1813 (with the Oaks as well), and in 1815 he did the double event again, being split
by Sam Barnard and Bill Arnull in the interval. His next Derby was not till 1822,
the year before he won his first St. Leger. He was a very safe rider, and a good
judge of pace.

Within a few months of Goodison, died another Yorkshire-bred jockey, William
Clift, the only jockey who ever enjoyed three pensions at the end of his life. One
came from Lord Fitzwilliam, with whose horses he succeeded Peirse and Jackson.
He was honest, but rough in speech and manner, and punished his horses severely.
His endurance both in the saddle and out of it was a by word, and in the winter he
used to ride relays of horses from Liverpool to London with the results of the Irish
Lottery. He won the Derby in 1793, 1800, 1803, 1810 (with the St. Leger, which he
also captured three years before), and lastly in 1819. He also had two Oaks' winners
in 1804 and 1808.

Of all the Northern jockeys in the first decade of that century, Shepherd, Jackson,
Peirse, and Ben Smith had the best of the mounts, and Jackson's name in the
St. Leger list goes back as far as 1791, and forward to 1822, with six victories
between, a record that only Bill Scott has beaten in the great Doncaster race.

4OO

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

He had the prettiest seat of all four, and must have thoroughly enjoyed himself on
Tramp, Blacklock, and Altisidora, and he also had Filho da Puta in the St. Leger.
He was an honest, quarrelsome man, and rode jst. vlb. almost to the end, before he
left the racecourse farm and took the inn at Northallerton. The rather grim face of
Shepherd on Mr. Pierse's Rosette is well known to collectors of sporting prints. He
had a fine knowledge of pace, which enabled him to make the running in many a
four-mile heat without overdoing his horse. He rode for Sir Thomas Gascoyne, the
Rev. Henry Goodricke, the Duke of Leeds, and Sir Mark Sykes, besides the owner
of Rosette, and Lord Foley transplanted him for a while from Yorkshire to
Newmarket. Some of his finest races were on Sir Solomon, and he sat so bolt

upright that there was
quite a hollow in the
middle of his back, and
he kept his foot straight
out to the point of his
horse's shoulder. Billy
Pierse, who had the
strongest rush of all four
of this Northern quartet,
began life as " Tom
Thumb " in a strolling
theatre, and married a
wife whose home-made
vintage he preferred
even to the pipe of port

Sir William Gerard sent him for winning the Oaks on Oriana, and whose
knowledge of housekeeping and general economy was only equalled by her
care and love for horses. His short legs rather spoilt his seat, but he was a
fine finisher, especially on Haphazard. His chief recreation was deep study of
Political Economy as set forth in the "Wealth of Nations," which may have
accounted for the fact that he never betted as a rule, though he was not above
giving the tip about Borodino to a thoughtful host, and he was proud of the
wager the Duke of Cleveland laid him of .£20,000 to ,£5 that he would not
win the Derby, Leger, and Oaks on Manitella, though he was never deluded
by His Grace's hospitality at Raby into forgetting that he would not have been

" St. Patrick" (1817) by " Walton:

FRANCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS.

401

there had he not been "useful." He was thoroughly adept at the "cross and
jostle " of the North Country, and once nearly drove poor Mangles into the
Borough Bridge Road at Catterick, and on another occasion made every horse
except his own fairly run away at Richmond. But he was as honest as the
John Day whose monopoly of that epithet he strongly resented, and died from
an overdose of colchicum, borne with all the courage that his father had shown
at Culloden with the Duke of Cumberland.

It was on Ben Smith, the last of our Northern four, that Pierse played one of
his best tricks, much assisted by Bill Scott. Ben succeeded Mangles with the
Duke of Hamilton, and on the only two mounts he had for Mr. Gascoyne he
wort, the Leger both
times, out of his total
score of six from 1803
to 1824. He was a
close - pocketed and
clean - mouthed man,
always neatly dressed.
He was so loyal that
he refused to get off the
Duke's Ironsides after he
had been badly kicked,
and won the race with
a broken leg ; and he
very rarely lost his
temper, being of a simple

nature that rarely took offence, and never gave it in the most awkward
inadvertences of his speech. But he once tried to knee Jackson, and they
started cutting each other's jackets to ribbons before they returned peacefully
to weigh-in. He was up on Correggio one day in a two-mile race at Preston, against
Pierse and Scott. Their only chance was to make him lose his temper, which
Scott succeeded in doing with some very peppery language before a crowd of people,
and then made the pace at the start with Gaudy. When the leader was done
with Paulowitz was rammed in front at once, and Ben, who never got a ghost
of a chance of taking a pull, was beaten by half a neck ; but he never bore malice
about it, beyond thinking Scott was " a sadly forrard young man." This Bill

Mr. Orde Powlett's "Jack Spigot" (1818) by " Ardrossan."

402 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

undoubtedly was, though he took his time, but he learnt a lot after his first
set-to with Pierse, in such snowy weather that the other Bill nearly blinded him
by taking the lead and pounding slush into his face.

William Scott came up from Bibury to Middleham about iSn, and was born
at Chippenham, near Newmarket. His brother John had made the famous Filho
da Puta match, and Bill won the Doncaster and Richmond Cups on' him. John
threw in his lot with Whitewall, as soon as Juliana had thrown her Comus filly,
and Mr. Petre began his memorable St. Leger trio with Matilda. Bill Scott's
St. Leger record of nine has never been equalled since, and it is made more
valuable by the addition of three Oaks, four Derbys, and plenty more good races,
between 1821 and 1846, when he won on his own horse, having achieved a
straight run of four from 1838 to 1841. He always said, and he ought to have
known if any one, that the right way to ride the Leger was to make severe
running to the top of the hill, for " what's the good of
condition if you don't use it?" He insisted that to win you
must be able to get a pull and go on again ; and in this style
he won on Satirist in the North. Mundig, in the Derby, was
his best example on the Epsom course, where he always said
that the horse which could stride farthest down hill would win.
The picture I reproduce of his Sir Tatton Sykcs, with the real

Sir Tatton beside him, is a reminder of how hard he had to

U'illiam Scott

waste to ride that St. Leger, and his win was remarkable,

for before the finish he had fairly dropped forward on the horse's neck from
exhaustion. Bill had won the Two Thousand, and would no doubt have won
the Derby too, had he not stayed too far behind at the post to scold the starter,
and even then got to Pyrrhus the First's neck. In the Leger, F. Butler rode
Col. Anson's laffo into second place, beaten by half a length, after he had made
his effort a hundred yards from home. The stakes were worth ^2,925, and
Brocardo, who was installed favourite with Sir Tatton, at 3 to i, came in third,
four lengths off the second.

The hard wasting Bill Scott had to undergo for this race was a conspicuous
feature in a jockey's life at that time, and the meeting at Gosforth when Newcastle
Races were on was always memorable ; for they all walked out the three miles
from the Grand Stand, led by Jack Holmes, Jacques (who once got off 17 Ibs. in
24 hours), and Bob Johnson, who was a master of the art. Bob always got third

4°3

I

404 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH '1 URF.

in the Leger, but his name will ever be remembered with that of Mr. Orel's
famous Beeswing. Sam Darling was another of the men who had to waste hard
until he ceased to ride in 1844, able to draw 8st. 2lb. to the last on a favourite
_ four-pound saddle. In 1832 he won 73 out of his 174 races,

in all parts of the country, and his great talent lay in forcing
the pace. His best horses were Isaac and Hesperus. His only
big classic was the St. Leger on Rockingham. But even Bill
Scott would have agreed, perhaps, in the matter of reducing
weight, at which he and Darling had both a lot to do, that old
John Day was right in saying that, " Depend upon it a man
doesn't enjoy the comforts of life unless he knows the wasting

Job Marson.

part of the business."

The names of Scott and of Sir Tatton Sykes will ever be inseparably connected
with the St. Leger course. For it was such men as John Scott, John Day, or
Thomas Dawson, who succeeded as trainers to the older school of Robson,
Edwards, Croft, and Watt. And very few men, owners or not, could say, like
old Sir Tatton, that they had seen over seventy St. Legers. The fact that he had
also seen only two Derbys will show that the North Country feeling kept up by
the old Earl Fitzwilliam was not singular to the Cooksons, Goodrickes, Cromptons,
Gascoynes, and Shaftos, who were the mainstay of Northern racing. Sir Tatton's
huntsman, Carter, accompanied the Baronet from Sledmere to the great race every
year, till his death in 1854; and the great traditions of his name are being well
kept up by the Sledmere paddocks to this day. John Scott, who trained sixteen
St. Leger winners, one of whom, Impirieuse, was his own ^^^t^

property, had three consecutive winners in Matilda, The
Colonel, and Rowton, and in addition to his brother Bill's four
consecutive wins on Don John, Charles XII., Launcelot, and
Satirist, he was also responsible for the victories of The
Baron, Neuominster, West Australian, Saucebox, Warlock,
Gamester, and The Marquis. By further successes in six Derbys
and nine Oaks, he fairly justified his name of the "Wizard
of the North," and he kept his reputation till his death in
1871. It seems difficult to find a good horse in Yorkshire stables in 1902.

Don Johns victory was very hollow. Robinson had to dismount, as Cobhams
forelegs suddenly gave way in the struggle for third place with Lancrcost, and the

FRANCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS.

405

favourite won by twelve lengths in what was then the record time of 3 mins. 17 sees.
To make up for this, next year's race (1839) produced the first dead-heat since the
foundation. Conolly on Mr. Thornhill's Euclid (by Emilius) made the running first,
but Charles XII. (the favourite at 7 to 4 on) went up before the hill and took a strong
lead through the heavy going to the Red House. After that Euclid challenged
again, and though Bill drove Conolly against the rails several times, he could only
make a dead-heat of it, the rest being four lengths off. In the decider Euclid was
slightly the favourite, and as they started at little more than a walk, he took the lead
to the Red House, where Bill came up, challenged at the distance, and won a fair and
hard set-to by a head. Charles XII. afterwards beat Beeswing and Lanercosl for the
Gold Cup, and retired
after losing the Doncaster
Cup to Alice Haivthorn
in 1843. Bill's third win
was chiefly owing to the
fact that the Marquis of
Westminster had declared
to win with Launcelot, own
brother to Touchstone, who
had been left at the post,
but came away at the Red
House. At the distance,
however, Maroon had the
race in hand, and Holmes
had to pull him to pre-
vent a victory which was only secured by a neck. The next year saw the same
owner and jockey successful again with Satirist by Pantaloon, who beat the Derby
winner Coronation, on whom 7 to 4 and 2 to i were betted. J. Day was confident
of success, and made strong running from the foot of the hill, but at the old rails
Bill Scott challenged and won a great race by ha'f a neck armd terrific cheers, and

o o J

nothing was too good for "glorious Bill" ever afterwards.

Bill's wonderful record was spoilt in 1842 by Tommy Lye on Blue Bonnet, a
daughter of Touchstone. Lye had a rare knowledge of pace that made him very
dangerous in heats, and his last big victory was on Cyprian for the Northumberland
Plate against Jack Holmes. But he was not a great rider, and I can do no more

"Lamplighter''' (1823)

VOL. II.

H

406

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

Thomas Lye.

than mention his name before passing on to Templeman, who was one of the many
to whom Catterick gave a maiden win. His last struggle was on Buzzard against

Harry Edwards on Mercutio at Pontefract ; and his neatest

victory was with Catherina at Liverpool against Holmes on
General Cliasst. Job Marson was one of Templeman's favourite
rivals, and in the St. Leger of 1843 Job beat F. Butler,
Holmes, Nat Flatman, three of the Nobles, Jem Robinson, and
Templeman himself. It was one of the finest finishes ever seen,
and there was plenty of excitement too, for John Gully is said
to have stood to win ,£50,000 on Prizefighter, and many
thought that Butler pulled Cotherstone in his favour. Whatever
really was intended, after Prizefighter had made the running to the Red House he
was on the rails from there, still ahead, when Job Marson on Nutwith split him and
Cotherstone, and won a magnificent race by a head, Prizefighter
third, a neck behind. Job won his first race on Cinderella in
1831, when he was only fourteen. He sat very upright, but
Frank Butler leaned slightly forward, and though not so strong
and steady had a faster and more sudden rush. I7 rank did so
well at Great Ealing School, where he may well have been a
contemporary of Cardinal Newman, that his family hoped he
would go into the Church ; but a nephew of the Chifneys and a
son of Lord Lowther's trainer could hardly be expected to keep
out of the saddle. His greatest victory was on Daniel C? Rourke in the Derby.
One of the finest finishes "the Druid" ever saw was when young John Day on
Old Enoland beat Marson on Plaudit and Robinson on Prologue

o o

over the Abingdon Mile in the Houghton Meeting of 1844.
and with the Days I must conclude this sketch of the jockeys of
the old school, though the name of Nat Flatman cannot be
omitted, who has always been considered a parallel in integrity
to Francis Buckle. He was born in 1810, and he began
racing work at Newmarket when he was fifteen. From
1846 to 1852 inclusive he was at the head of the winning
list, having more mounts than any one else till he rode

his last race in 1859, two years before his death. He was wonderful with
two-year-olds, and always sparing with the whip, and his fame is assured,

/. Holmes.

Nat Flatman .

FRANCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS.

407

if by nothing else, by the great match at York on Voltigeur against The Flying
Dutchman.

The names of Day and Danebury are as famous on the Turf of the first half of the
nineteenth century as those of Scott and Whitewall. Old John Day's first great
victory was over Buckle, when he won both the One Thousand and the Two

Thousand for the Duke of Grafton, who gave him "^"20 in banknotes of Messrs. •

Bank at Bury St. Edmunds, most highly respectable Bankers." There was one place,
however, in England, where Old John was not well known, and that was in the

BY permission of the Duke of Westminster.

Pantaloon" (1824) by " Castret."

House of Commons, where the policeman did not recognise the name at all, and Lord
Palmerston's visitor had to wait some time until the owner of lliuna was brought to
where " more important stuff than politics " awaited him. John had a brother named
Sam, who rode, and there was also a young Sam ; in fact, " quite sufficient Days to
make a week of winners," as a wag of the period declared. Young John's first win
was on Mr. Brigg's Whisk at Weymouth in 1830, and his beating of Robinson on
Old En oland has been already mentioned. He was not so lucky on Ugly Buck, when
the same jockey rushed up at the post on Minotaur ; and Jem fairly made an

4-oS

l

I G

&

s

FRANCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS.

409

fohn Day, Stti.

John Day,Juit.

exhibition of " Old John " in the Grand Duke Michael Stakes of 1830, when he sat
still and never moved on Bay Middleton, while John was hard at work with whip and
heel on Elis. In fact, Bill Scott, John Day,
and Sam Rogers, were good rough jockeys,
but not in the same class with men like
Alfred Day, Sam Chifney, Jem Robinson, or
Fordham. It may have been training and
betting rather got on "Old John's" mind
towards the last, but his earlier riding was
certainly better than his later. He was very
active, and extremely clever at holding such
a puller as Touchstone was, though he was far from despising curb-bridles like Chifney,
and he never won the Derby, though he got five Oaks. He always enjoyed the
memory of his victory on Amphitrite over Robinson on Mixbury almost as much as
having beaten Buckle for the Riddlesworth. Old John's son, Alfred, was the best
jockey of the family, who rode Shocking Mamma in the Cesarewitch of 1843 at 4st- 7^°-
His first big win was against Sam Rogers, Templeman, Job Marson, Jem Robinson,
Frank Butler, Chappie, and Flatman, when he scored in the One Thousand. His
great race on Andover soon after brought more than a heavy stake to the Danebury
party, and with his name I pass on to a few more considerations of the changes that
took place in the course of the nineteenth century.

By permission of his Grandchildren.

Ke/ia of Frank Buckle.

4io

CHAPTER XVI.

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

" Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis
Est in juvencis est in equis palrum
Virtus nee imbellem feroces
Progenerant aquilae columbam."

" Seu quis Olympiacae miratus praemia palmae
Pascit equos, seu quis fortes ad aratra juvencos,
Corpora praecipue matrum legal."

T T would, I think, be improper in such volumes as the present, to draw a
•*- detailed comparison between the methods of trainers now living and those of
older men, or even to trace the development of these matters from the days
when Whitewall and the North were predominant, to those when the first ten
winning trainers of 1902 do not include a single Yorkshire stable. But the material
which trainers have to handle is a very different subject, and none could be more
appropriate to these pages.

Even from the little I have been able to record of the early Turf, a very great
difference is observable between the methods of the eighteenth century and
our own. Before the institution of the Jockey Club, and the development of
the Derby and the Oaks as annual fixtures, the three-year-old was scarcely
raced at all. He was in very much the same position as the yearling of to-day.
Some of the best horses in the reigns of William III. and of Anne won their
first race in a Six-year-old Plate, and certainly went on running matches till they
were ten and even twelve years old. The distances they ran were far more
punishing than is now the case, as much as six or even eight miles being occa-
sionally suggested, while four heats of a mile each was a common performance for
one horse on the same day. It is obvious, therefore, that owners were contemplating
a very different goal for their endeavours during most of the eighteenth century

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

411

from that to which breeders of 1902 are looking forward, and any comparison
between results so inevitably different would be extremely misleading even if
the requisite data had come down to us. As many horses are now nominated for
the Derby every year as were in training during the whole twelve months two
centuries ago. The great prizes of our Turf are given to young horses. The
services of fashionable sires are so much in request that a stallion with a first-class
record and of high descent is sure to be sent early to the stud. Even if he were not,
the system of handicapping, on which all modern racing is founded, would soon
drive him off the course whatever might have been his owner's wishes. The high
price of a good yearling
in these days practically
necessitates in most
cases a quick return for
the outlay of so much
capital, and if that re-
turn is not secured by
entering him for ten
times more races than
was the case a century
ago, it must be reaped
by getting early stud
fees. Then, too, the
enormous percentage of
expensive failures in the
yearlings purchased is

an equally strong incentive in the same direction, while the fee now charged
for the service of a stallion — as much as 600 gs. for a fashionable sire — is a
much heavier risk to take than the 60 gs. charged for Touchstone, or the 25 gs.
asked for fferod. Many and complicated have been the theories by which breeders
have endeavoured to avoid these losses and produce "a certainty." But year after
year the animals under their charge have refused to be treated as so many four-
legged multiplication tables, and the foals thrown have shown much the same
proportion of " rank bad "uns." Nature deals out the cards by processes known
only to herself. The hand takes a good deal of playing, even when it happens
to be extraordinarily strong in trumps ; but the time has not yet arrived when

' Rockingham " (1830) by "Humphrey Clinker."

4I2

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

the game will be spoilt by every player knowing what he is going to get out of
the pack, and how to get it.

Before the Committee of the House of Lords on horse-breeding, in 1873,
some very interesting evidence was given by the best experts of the day. For
fifty years previously Admiral Rous had seen every thoroughbred on the Turf, and
for thirty years he had carefully noted all their performances. His opinion was that
we had enormously improved upon the crude productions of our ancestors, and he
adduced the relative size of race-horses at different periods as a proof of his
contentions, a method of argument which takes it for granted that size and substance

are indispensable. This
may or may not be true
in certain cases, but it
is by no means axio-
matic. The gallant Ad-
miral's figures are, how-
ever, of the highest
interest. " In 1700," he
is reported to have
testified, " the average
size of the thorough-
bred was thirteen hands
three inches, and it has
increased an inch every
twenty-five years since.

*

Now the average height

of our race-horses is fifteen hands three inches, and twelve are in training of
no less than seventeen hands."

Prince Charlie at once occurs to me as an example of a seventeen-hand horse,
and extraordinary he was, too, for a mile. But he was a roarer, as so many animals
of his size seem disposed to be. It is worth noting, however, that, with all the five
or six-furlong events now popular, we do not seem to succeed in producing first-rate
sprinters as some compensation for an undoubted loss in staying power. In 1902,
for instance, Orchid (by no means a large horse) won the Temple Handicap at
Sandown Park with 9 stone 7 pounds on his back, and proved to be faster than
Sundridge, Cossack, Elizabeth M., or Lord Bobs, the best of our flyers over a short

--=s-saS*aBaBl

'• I'espa" (1830) by ".

4'3

VOL. if.

4'4

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

distance. The bio- colt by Blair At hoi out of Eastern Princess was a marvellous
mover for his size, but should never have been asked to go a yard further than the

Rowley Mile.

It was no later than 1740 before what may be described as pony-racing was made
illeo-al. In 1758 Herod was fifteen hands three inches. In 1764 Eclipse was over
fifteen hands two inches ; and if Jupiter (1774) may be taken to reduce the balance
with fifteen hands one inch, or Gimcrack with just over fourteen hands, there is Magog
to correct the figures again, who was considered a giant because he stood sixteen

By permission of the Duke
of Westminster.

Touchstone'' <it flic Stiui.

hands in 1778. In fact, as soon as the imported Eastern horse had become
accustomed to the best climate in the world for horses, he undoubtedly increased
in size from his usual height of fourteen hands two inches and thereabouts.
He was mated to a larger stamp of native breed, produced by the process I
have sketched in earlier chapters. The result could never be anticipated with
certainty as far as size alone was concerned. There was a time when a big-
horse was the only thing a trainer cared about. There has also been a time when
bloodlike quality has threatened to degenerate into a somewhat effeminate and

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

4'5

flashy breed. The maxim that " a good big one is better than a good little one" is
not always sound either in racing or in breeding. In the first half of the nineteenth
century we found such good little ones as Little Red Rover 14.3, Perion not quite 15,
Middlcton 15.1, Camel under 15.2, Mulatto the same, Lamplighter 15.1, Gainsborough
15.2. Touchstone was about 15.2, and the size came out in his blood with those pretty
little horses Flash in the Pan and Heidelburg, while his great-grandson, Hampton, was
another instance of his useful size, and it is significant that the smaller Hampton
mares have proved the most successful, as in the case of Perdita II. The truth,
as so often happens, lies between the two extremes ; but it is at least certain
that height cannot be
accepted as a sure indi-
cation of merit, and
that even if a constant
increase in average size

o

could be accurately
pr.oved it would not
alone be sufficient evi-
dence of an all-round im-
provement in thorough-
bred stock. The value
of a blood-horse cannot
be calculated at so much
a yard. Nor is it pos-
sible to make any
comparison between the

performances of the animals we know and of those in earlier days,
for the simple reason that the requisite records do not exist. I have
seen it stated that Eclipse did the Beacon Course of 4 miles 365 yards in
under eight minutes, and that the horse which can cover the Liverpool Grand
National Course, which is 897 yards longer, "obstacles" and all, in ten
minutes, must therefore be a better animal. The conclusion may very possibly
be correct, but I take leave to doubt the accuracy of the premises by which it is
reached. General Peel, in giving evidence before the same Committee I have
already named, thought that the bloodstock of 1873 was just as good as any ever
bred, >' but there are more bad ones bred in proportion to the total number in conse-

Lord Jersey's "GSencoe" (1831).

41 6 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

quence of the whole system of breeding being altered." The observation is as sound
as it was sagacious. When it was made, and to a large extent for the next quarter
of a century, nine-tenths of the yearlings registered in the Stud Book were bred for
sale instead of for their owners to race. The large prices offered revolutionised
the methods of stud sales. Breeders put their names to any stallions without so
much considering the propriety of the union as the possibility of its fruitfulness.
Nature has now and then taken an appropriate revenge by awarding the best stakes
to private owners of comparatively small stud farms who bred and raced their own
stock. But one inevitable result has been the enormously increased production of
a racing-machine, who, if he were not fast for a few furlongs under a light
weight, was utterly worthless for everything else, and was very often not given the
chance of proving whether he was a stayer or not. The utilitarian point of view
embodied in the last sentence was that which was upheld before the same Committee
of the Lords in 1873 by the Earl of Stradbroke. "There are not four horses in
England now," said this witness, " that could run over the Beacon Course in their
eight minutes, which in my younger days I used to see frequently done." But what
could be expected if, as actually happened in the year this evidence was given, one man
was able to land no less than ^80,000 in bets on a single short race? Was it likely
that owners who preferred money to stamina would bother about long races
and the numerous and costly preliminaries they involved? The five-furlong scurry
just suited them. Their two-year-olds began to make something more than their
corn-bill with satisfactory rapidity. The change from the days of Eclipse could
hardly be more clearly emphasised ; for that great horse had nothing taken out of
him till maturity, and never raced at all till after he was five. This has been
suggested as one reason for the extraordinary vigour of his blood, and the influence
it still exerts on every descendant who can boast any large proportion of
it in his veins. But this does not mean that no better horse than Eclipse
or Flying Childers has been ever bred. To come no nearer to the present
day than Blue Gown or Blair At ho/, Roticritcian or Cremorne, or Harkaway,
I think it will hardly be challenged that the usual cry of the degeneracy
of horses has no more basis now than it had in their times, or than it had a
hundred years ago ; and that, in fact, just as we long ago improved both the
imported Arab and the native breed, so we have gone on steadily improving
the produce of them both, sometimes by fortuitous circumstances, sometimes
by careful choice in mating, but always by continued racing from generation to

II

V

N

1

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

417

generation, and — in the end— by the rude, fundamental test of the survival of the
fittest.

It would be quite possible to produce an example in every decade since Eclipse's
birth which would be good enough evidence against degeneration. What about
Higl ''fy vr(i774), Sir Peter (1784), ^17(1790), Whalebone (1807), Smolensko (1810),
Emilius (1820), Plenty (1831), Flying Dutchman (1846), West Australian (1850),
Blair At hoi (1861), Galopin (1872), St. Simon ( 1881), Ormonde (1883), Persimmon
(1893) ? When we come to sires and dams the question is, perhaps, more complicated.
It would probably, too, be as difficult to produce six sires from any period equal
to Eclipse, Highflyer,
PotSos, King Fergus, Sir
Peter, and Waxy, as it
would be to find six
brood mares better than
Julia, Promise, Pru-
nella, Penelope, Parasol,
and Maiidane ; a round
dozen through whom
all our best blood is
descended. Flying Fox
and La Fleche may fetch
more in the market ;
our crack yearlings may
cost four and five
thousand guineas
apiece ; the pecuniary rewards of one of our best racers may run to very
large sums in a single season ; but for all that I question whether the promise
of our future is as great as was that of the men who watched Eclipse or Gimcrack at
their exercise. Can we even say that the outlook now is what it was in 1847 ? A
young man racing in that year would have seen, by 1857, the following list of
successive winners : Van Tramp, Surplice, Flying Dutchman, Voltigeur, Newmivster,
Teddington, Stockivell. West Australian, Virago, Wild Dayrell, Fisherman, Blink
Bonny, and Vedette. Shall we be able to look back on something approaching this
in quality, whatever the quantity of our produce may be, between 1900 and 1910 ?

It must be remembered, too, that the early nineteenth century was not merely

" Gallopade" ridden by Holmes in
the Doncaster Cttp of 1832.

418

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

engaged in breeding horses for the English Turf, and in laying the foundation of
all our modern racing stock. Breeders were also supplying foreign markets and
sending the blood of the English thoroughbred to every racecourse in the world.
This is a subject I can no more than hint at here, but by the kindness of H.R. H.
Prince Christian I am enabled to give some extracts from the stud-book of his
father, the Duke Christian August of Schleswig-Holstein, and some portraits of its
most famous animals from the pencil of Albrecht Adam, grandfather of the well-
known modern artist. In many cases these drawings are so much superior to any

The Duke of Schlesivig-Holsteirfs "Phantom" mare.

representations of contemporary animals on the English Turf, that they should prove
of great value for purposes of comparison. Of the stallions kept at the Stud Earm at
Augustenborg I reproduce (i) Moses by Whalebone out of the Gohanna mare, foaled
in 1819, and bought from the Duke of York, a bay who won the Derby, the Albany
Stakes at Ascot, and the Claret Stakes of Newmarket ; (2) Logic (1820) by Selim, out of
Piquet, by Sorcerer, her dam, Prunella, bought from the Duke of Grafton. Of the
mares, I have chosen (i) a Phantom mare, bought from Sir John Shelley, foaled in
1822, by Phantom, out of Mansfield's clam by Sorcerer ; (2) La Danseuse, by Blacklock,

4'9

Si

l\

420

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

out of Madame Sarfii. For the same stud were bought W. Chifney's Antoninus,
Sir Mark Wood's Brother to Margrave by Muley, Lord Foley's Goliath by Woful,
His Majesty's Hadji B aba (1821) by Election, the Duke of Rutland's Adeliza by
Soothsayer, Lord Scarborough's Z,rtY/y Georgiana by Cation, a Merlin mare from
Mr. Thornhill, Mr. Crockford's J/k? ZV//0, Mr. Goodison's Moonshine by Soothsayer,
Myra from the Hampton Court Stud, Sir H. Vane-Tempest's Rachel, by Magistrate,
Lord Egremont's Spree, by Frolic, and Lord Verulam's Vitellina, by Comns.

Among other German importations from English studs were Brutandorf by
Blacklock (Chester Cup, 1826) ; and Count Batthyany soon transferred his operations

entirely to the English
Turf, where he raced
for over fifty years,
and died at New-
market on the Two
Thousand Day

in

The Duke of Schluswig-Holsteiris " Wilna.K

1883, after having
realised his ambition
by winning the Derby
with Galopin, one of
the best horses of the
century. The French
carefully chose their
share as well, with
such good animals as
Holbein by Rubens, and

Rainbow by Walton. In the same period Abjer, Barefoot (by Tramp] and Valentine
went to America ; Nectar, Interpreter, Bourbon and Pericles went to the Russians,
who were fond of Sorcerer blood, and later on secured their Derby winners in
Coronation, Andover, and Galtee More, besides another good stallion in Colorado.
Germany and Austria have taken, in later years, Buccaneer, Daniel O'Rourke, Kettle-
drum, Doncaster, St. Gatien, Kendal, Bona Vista, Satiety, Piety, Milford, and many
others. The French Government have taken especially heavy toll, as may be seen
from a list of their purchases containing Pyrrlnis the First, Atlila, Cossack, West Austra-
lian, The Flying Dutchman, Ellington, The Emperor, Collingwood, The Baron, Fangh-a-
Ballagh, Weathergage, Buckthorn, Malton, The Nabob. When we add to these such

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

4=1

first-rate expectations as The Bard, Energy, Silvio, Border Minstrel, Flying Fox, and
Childwick, it will be seen that up to the beginning of the twentieth century
England has not only bred for her own Turf but has provided the best blood
for every other country ; including many American purchases ; and this should
always be remembered in any consideration of modern breeding possibilities, or in
any comparison of the present day with periods belore these costly exportations began.
Against the sixty-six stallions advertised for 1780, which I reproduce in the
appendix from the Racing Calendar for 1779, let us put the 403 advertised
stallions of 122 years later, as recorded in " Ruffs Guide " for 1901, which adds the
information that, in
1900, 706 foals and
yearlings were sold
at an average price
of 252 guineas, the
highest figure realised
being ten thousand
guineas for the filly
by Pirsimm n out of
Ornament, giving a
total of 178,176
guineas. It should be
remembered also that
St. Simon, in 1901,
commanded the ex-
traordinary fee of six

hundred guineas, and that Melton and Persimmon brought four hundred guineas
and three hundred guineas respectively. St. Simon not only headed the
list of winning sires in 1901 with .£28,769 (December i4th) to the £26,606
of Lac/as (whose stock have only raced for three years), but one of his sons,
Florizel II. , was third with .£23,667, (the oldest of his stock being three-year-
olds), and another, St. Frusgnin, was fifth with £11,417, the fourth place being
taken by Gallinnle with £20,455. Of all the rest only Ayrshire reached five
figures. Only seventy-three beat the ,£1,5 V recorded by the American, Kingston.
Only 163 out of over 400 won more than ,£500. In the same season it cannot be
said that the three-year-olds were more than moderate, for in the list from Highflyer
VOL. n. 3 K

" Cyprian" (1833) by

422

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

to Persimmon which I gave on page 417, I cannot find a single name which will not
stand higher than that of Volodyovski, the Derby winner of 1901. American-
bred animals won the Oaks and the Cambridgeshire. The question of the four-
figure yearlings may, at least, suggest the reflections that money does not always
represent value, and that buyers are gradually becoming more sensible. No
doubt they are beginning to realise what is meant by the "cold figures." In the
first twenty-five winning stallions of 1901, for instance, only Galopin (now
dead) came under the hammer as a yearling, and he fetched 520 guineas.

By permission of the Kt. Hon.
the Earl of Rosebery.

Mr. OrcPs " Beeswing" (1833) by "Dr. Syntax."

Again, 476 yearlings have been sold for 1,000 guineas and upwards in eighteen years,
and of them all Bonavista (chiefly owing to Cyllctu) has alone proved a successful
stallion ; and it can only be to stud successes that a purchaser must look who pays a
high figure for a heavily-engaged colt, and has to add to loss of interest his keep,
training, and riding expenses, besides stakes and forfeits, the whole making a total
which is more than likely to exceed the animal's prizes in his racing career. At Mr.
Tattersall's Newmarket December sales that same year, Longy, for whom eight
thousand guineas were .refused as a two-year-old, was sold for a hundred and fifty.

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

423

One trio of yearlings actually went for the total of seventeen pounds. Such a
success as Sceptre is rare enough to be fairly called an exception. Yet even in her
year, when Sceptre and St. Mac/on between them scored .£27,821, to set off against
the 1 1, 600 guineas they cost in the sale-ring, the three-year-olds of 1902, who were
sold as yearlings for a total of ,£92,400 for 37, only won .£38,744, which shows a
heavy loss, though all the classic races except the Derby are included. It should
also be remembered that, among these 37, eight only came to the hammer owing to

?

Lord Jersey's "Bay Mfddleton." (1833) by " Sultun."

the accident of the Duke of Westminster's decease, and though these eight won over
.£30,000 they did not win within ^10,000 of their purchase- money. It is also worth
noting in the same connection that Sf. Mac/on won both the Lincolnshire Handicap
and the Manchester November Handicap, and Sceptre herself was in training from the
first of these races until after the St. Leger. Taking 1883 as the first year of the
fashion for these high-priced youngsters, 476 have been sold from then to 1900
inclusive, at a cost of .£859,089, which is ,£515,583 more than they had won
in prizes up to the end of 1902.

424

A HISTORY Of THK ENGLISH

The net result of these various considerations may shortly be summed up, from
the point of view of the comparison which is my present business. The enormous
number of horses now bred and raced has involved the production of an enormously
greater quantity of rubbish than was ever the case before. It is not my opinion that
the be^t have degenerated yet ; but clearly it cannot be denied that the waste of
life upon the Turf is far greater than it ever was. In the season of 1900, for
instance, 1,508 two-year-olds went to the post. Of the 1,433 two-year-olds which
appeared in 1899, 1,186 raced as three-year-olds in 1900, without counting
hurdle-races. But of the 1,055 three-year-olds of 1899 only 582 lasted out; and

679 was the total of
horses aged five
years and upwards
who competed i n
ic,oi on the flat,
a number which is
curiously enough ex-
actly half the total
of the two-year-olds
of 1897.

Taking 1875 as
the date when com-
pany-promotions and
enclosed meetings
really began to influ-
ence racing, we find

that (on the same basis of calculation) only 2,098 horses in all ran in 1872, as com-
pared with the 3,955 of 1901 ; of the 732 two-year-olds of 1871, 627 ran as three-
year-olds in 1872, which gives a considerably higher proportion, though the four-
year-olds show an equal if not a greater loss. Already the fatal demand for
quantity at any rate, whether quality was obtained or not, had begun to show its
effects. Mr. Chaplin and Sir Joseph Hawley were among the few who realised the
trend of affairs. They pointed this out to the Jockey Club Stewards of the time, who
were gradually losing all that control of the whole situation which we have seen
them so easily acquire when they began ; they urged that it was suicidal to offer
high inducements for two-year-old racing ; that if " weeds " were wanted " weeds "

" Harkaway" (1834) by "Economist."

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

425

would be bred, good for a short distance at a high speed in their youth, and
good for nothing else ; that even the best were unable to stand the strain, as
was evidenced by the unparalleled mortality of young four-year-olds who can rarely
be said yet to be mature ; that if a man is prevented from killing his own salmon
and partridge at certain seasons, or from overworking his own children before
they are grown up, there is just as much reason for interfering with private
rights for the public good in the matter of thoroughbreds.

These arguments were, however, neglected. The large amount of capital
invested in various racing companies exercised too strong an influence. " Gate-
money " began to alter
the Turf in much
the same way as we
have seen it alter foot-
ball, a " game " which
a few men are now
paid for playing while
thousands "take
their exercise " by
looking on. Unfor-
tunately, the parallel is
not complete. A few
good horses will not
suit the Companies.
They much prefer "Mango" (.834) fy » Emiiiu*->

a lot of racing with

any kind of horse at all. They encourage breeders to race their youngsters before
the gristle has fairly hardened into bone, and to breed from them while they are still
little better than babies. When, on the other hand, breeders get a youngster so un-
doubtedly worth trying at the stud as the son of La Flec/ie, and of another Ascot Cup
winner (surely an unparalleled parentage), they refuse to allow such famous blood to be
handed on to posterity (as in the case of Strotigbaw), apparently owing to the success
that has unfortunately attended the gelding of "difficult" animals like Osbech,
Epsom Lad, or O 'Donovan Rossa. It should be noted, too, that far more mares are
put to the stud now at the age of three, and even two years old, than was ever the
case before, surely just as dangerous a proceeding as the use of immature sires, and

426

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

one which can be proved to exist by any one who cares to work out the figures from
the volumes of the General Stud Book. Even if we do possess the raw material as
good as ever, as I believe we do, it seems to be given absolutely as small a chance
as possible of useful perpetuation in the future, owing to the sport of the few having
become the business of the many. The very Jockey Club itself, the guardian of
the highest interests of the English thoroughbred and the English Turf, has
sanctioned a prize for two-year-olds worth six thousand pounds in April.
Instead of increasing the inducements to race a four-year-old and more mature
animal by increasing the prizes open to him, they have gone exactly in the
opposite direction by decreasing to its farthest point the possibility of a horse

ever lasting on the
Turf till he is four
or five ; and they
have encouraged the
absurdly inflated
prices offered for
yearlings by holding
out the possibility of
a speedy emolument
that may put dollars
into one owner's
pocket, but will
certainly call into
existence a hundred
unnecessary and
useless screws. Large prices do not invariably spell benefit to the Turf.

It must not be imagined that either in this respect or in many others, the old
original Jockey Club was so very much better than its modern representative.
In 1782 they actually asked two-year-olds (carrying "a feather") to run three miles
at the Houghton Meeting. The practice of matching youngsters remained far more
popular at Newmarket than it did in the North, though I have given my reasons in
earlier pages for thinking that it was first introduced by Hutchinson and the Rev.
Henry Goodricke in Yorkshire. However that may be, Sir Charles Bunbury had been
eight years on the Turf, and the Jockey Club was at least eighteen years old
when two-year-olds were expressly authorised to run at Newmarket in the Craven

"Don John'' (1835) by " Tramp."

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

427

Stakes of 1771 ; and no records of similar public performances in the North can be
discovered before 1779. The truth is, no doubt, that at a time when the Turf was
undergoing the greatest development it has ever known, those who were at the head
of it did not quite realise what the future might bring forth, and saw no reason to
restrain the exuberant spirits of such men as Fox, Barrymore, Vernon, Foley,
Ladbroke, and many more, who raced as hard as they did everything, and therefore
raced their two year- olds and thought no more about it. Nor have I forgotten that
in days when horses took their age from May ist the Derby was really contested by
two-year-olds, " rising three," as we should say. But no excuses can be made for
those on whom the
mantle of Bernard
Howard, of Sir Charles
Bunbury, of Lord
George Bentinck, of
Admiral Rous, has
fallen in honourable
succession. They can
plead neither such
inexperience of organ-
ised racing, nor such

extravagance in contem-

Lord Chcsteffula's "Industry" (1835) by "Priam."

porary social manners.

They have the lessons

of a fruitful past

to draw upon if they

will only turn the leaves. I am not one of those who can believe that our best blood

has degenerated when such sires as St. Simon and his sons are among us still. Ik:t

I cannot be blind to the fact that gross mismanagement will spoil the best blood

ever bred. No amount of " scientific breeding," and no amount of cheque-books,

will compensate for wrong treatment of the animal from his birth upwards, for

continued inbreeding, for ill-judged mating, or for unnatural conditions.

I may be allowed to remark in this connection that the only Derby winners
sold as yearlings in the last three decades of the nineteenth century were
Galofyin, Doncaster, Se//on, Shotover, Merry Hampton, and Sainfoin, concerning the last
of whom it will be considered in every way appropriate that the first lady to send

428

A HISTORF OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

out an embryo Derby winner from her stud was her late Majesty Queen Victoria,
whose pastures at Hampton Court were even more renowned as the home in their
early days of Springfield, and of those famous sisters Memoir and La Fleche. As a
matter of fact, during the period just mentioned the best strains were monopolised
by the greater men of the Turf almost as much as they were in the days when Sir
Charles Bunbury, Lord Grosvenor, Lord Egremont, and the Duke of Grafton won
fourteen out of the first thirty-six Derbies. In 1902, though Sceptre, St. Mac/on, and
Dundonald were bought as yearlings, all the other winners were bred by their
respective owners; the Derby being won by Mr. J. Gubbins with Ard Patrick ; the
three .£10,000 races by Sir Richard Waldie Griffith, the Duke of Devonshire, and the

late Col. McCalmont
(with Velcs, Cheers,
and Rising Glass
respectively) ; the
Ascot Cup and
Alexandra Plate by
the Duke of Port-
land's William the
Third; the National
Produce Stakes by
Mr. Arthur James's
Rabelais. ; the Middle
Park Plate by Sir
Daniel Cooper's Flot-
sam ; the Coventry

and Champagne Stakes and the Dewhurst Plate with Rock Sand; and in the list of
winning owners which was headed by Sir John Blundell Maple in 1901, this gentle-
man was only just beaten for second place by the late Colonel H. McCalmont.

It is not, perhaps, without significance that the occasion on which the most sensible
Turf reforms have in late years been suggested has been the annual dinner of the
York Race Committee and the brethren of the Ancient Fraternity of York Gimcracks.
The very name of the animal from whom the Club is named seems to suggest the
wisdom of considering whether we have really learnt the lesson of the days when
Gimcrack raced. At the one-hundred^and-thirtieth dinner some suggestions were
made by the Rt. Hon. James Lowther, M.P., and by the famous trainer, John

Mr. ThornhMs "Euclid" (1836) by " Emilius?

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

429

Porter, which have an intimate bearing on the suoject I am just discussing.
They were speaking in a year when no such record price for a yearling
as the 10,000 guineas paid for Sceptre had been seen. Yet Mr. Musker purchased
a filly by St. Simon out of Bonnie Morn for 5,300 guineas, and another by Ladas out
of La Flfche for 5,200 guineas; a Persimmon filly (out of Cassimere) was bought by
Lord Howard de Walden for 2,300 guineas, and two more of the same sire's produce
reached the same figure, which brought the average of the King's famous horse up
to 1,672 guineas for five yearlings, a result only beaten by the average of 2,143
guineas for four (one of which fetched only forty) shown by his own sire St. Simon.
In 1900 it was the
Eaton stud which
produced such fabulous
figures, of which the
most extraordinary was
perhaps the 5,500
guineas paid for
Sandflake, in one di-
rection, and the 30,420
guineas paid for ten
of Orme's descendants,
in another. It should
be added that 1900
was not only re-
markable for the
10,000 guineas, paid

by Mr. Sievier, for Sceptre by Persimmon out of Ornament. Cupbearer, by Orme out
of Kissing Cup, fetched 9,100; Flying Lemur, by Orme out of Vampire, brought
5,700 ; and Duke of Westminster only a little less.

No doubt it was with such figures as these in his mind that John Porter proposed to
the assembled Gimcrack Club in December, 1901, that the views he had already pub-
lished concerning two-year-old racing deserved careful and immediate consideration.
He urged that it would be much better for the animal if two-year-old racing began on
June ist instead of March 25th, because the recent reduction in the value of their
races between those dates had not proved a sufficient reform. At least the
better class of two-year-olds ought to be in some way prevented from racing so

VOL. II. 3 L

" Bloomsbury" (1836) by "Mulatto."

43C

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

early, and the gamblers who would race anything as soon as possible might, perhaps,
be checked by the enactment that all two-year-old races between March a6th and
June ist should be selling races. In France, where the two-year-old is o-iven until
August, ist, it is certainly true that more older horses were running than was the
case in the season of 1901 on the English Turf. When we have seen such
horses as Common (who made his first appearance as a three-year-old) and Flyinp
Fox, sent to the stud before they have been given a chance of showing what their
four-year-old racing form was really like, we perhaps get at one reason for this.

Mr. Porter did not make the mistake of preaching what he did not practise.

His youngsters are
rarely seen before
Ascot, with the result
that the Kingsclere
two-year-olds very sel-
dom miss their two
full seasons on the
Turf. I have men-
tioned Common already.
Ormonde did not ap-
pear till the second
October week. But in
u country where racing
is made so much more
of a business than
is ever likely to be

the case in France, Mr. Porter's reform is certain to meet with extended opposition
from the majority who care more for their banking account than for the animals who
help to swell it. They point to the smaller programmes that would no doubt be
necessitated at first by the absence of the two-year-olds during the ten weeks affected
by the suggested legislation. They have no patience to wait until by the operation
of this very reform the numbers of four and five-year-olds in training at the beginning
of each season would more than compensate for the youngsters who are now run off
their legs too soon. Excellence is not a matter of totals, either in entries or
in cash, otherwise it might be pointed out that nearly ^"480,000 was
run for in arizes in 1901, by the largest number of horses ever known, viz.,

"Charles XII." (1836) by " Voltaire."

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

431

3,957, as compared with 2,105 in lS9O, and 2,569 in 1870, when hunters' flat races
were included in the returns. Mr. Porter's, I fear, was a voice crying .in the
wilderness, and for some time longer his sound views on the two-year-olcl are as
unlikely to become popular as his equally correct opinions on breeding. " Audax"
has frequently advised, in " Horse and Hound," that no two-year-olcl should be
allowed to race more than half a mile before June ist, as this short distance would not
be likely to hurt a backward youngster. Certainly, in the days to which he thus
desires to revert, there were such cracks racing for half a mile as (in 1866, for
instance) Achievement, Hermit, and The Rake, who all came out before the ist of
May. But the subject
is slightly too contro-
versial, on the whole,
for these pages.

The publication ot
the entries for 1902
was noticeable for
the fact that H i s
Majesty the King
was represented in
the Gold Cup at
Ascot, the Newmarket
Meetings, and the
Grand National, and
the year was made
memorable as early

as March by the first victory won by a monarch of these realms for sixty years
upon the English Turf, when Ambush II. won for King Edward VII. in the Stand
Steeplechase at Kempton Park. An accident put that good horse out of the
running for the Grand National, but his name will always be connected with the suc-
cessful return to the Turf of the sovereign who had made so brilliant a record
there when he was Prince of Wales.

But the most interesting, if not sensational, occurrences of 1902 centred round
Mr. Sievier's flying filly Sceptre, whose purchase as a yearling at record price
has already been mentioned. As an example of private and amateur training by
her owner she would deserve mention in this place, entirely apart from performances

"Coronation" (1838) by ' Sir Hercules."1

432

A HISTORY Of1 THE ENGLISH TURI'\

which put her on a level with any filly that ever raced. Her record as a three-
year-old has never been surpassed, and only approached by Formosa, who also
won the One Thousand, Oaks, and Leger, but only ran a dead-heat for the
Two Thousand, with Moslem, who afterwards proved to be a very inferior horse.
Sceptre's owner, though he had been racing for many years, had only quite
recently been identified with stable management and training. At the late Duke
of Westminster's sale of yearlings he bought Scetitrc for 10,000 guineas, and
Dnkz of Westminster for 5,400 guineas, the latter of whom he sold for 21,000
guineas after winning a couple of races worth about ,£3,000. As two-year-olds the

pair were trained by
Charles Morton ; but
after a short interval
in charge of an
American named
Davis, Sceptre passed
entirely into her
owner's keeping, and
turned out far the best
of her year. Of course
she was a wonder-
ful filly to begin with,
but no trainer can
do anything with a
poor horse, and to
have been so successful
with one of the high-spirited St. Simon blood would be a rare feather in the cap of
the most experienced. Her breeding was of the best, as may be seen from
her pedigree in the appendix.

Sceptre's successes brought Mr. Sievier's name to the top of the list of winning
owners, and of trainers too, as far as the value of the stakes is concerned ; for he only
began the season with fifteen horses in training, and won ten races (worth .£23,686)
with five animals. R. Marsh, of Egerton House, with sixty-seven horses in train-
ing, produced fourteen winners, with ,£21,997 f°r their ten races. W. Waugh, of
Falmouth House, who was first in 1901, fell to fifth in 1902, for though he got
thirty winners out of his forty-seven horses, the sixty seven races they secured were

The Marquis of Wcsftninstci-'ls
"Safirist" (1838) by " Panfaloon."

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

433

only worth £"17,912, or some ,£300 more than the twenty- four races scored by the
fourteen winners produced from John Porter's stable of sixty-two. Sceptre was also
responsible for putting Persimmon at the head of the winning stallions of 1902, a
service to the English Turf which more than compensated his Royal owner for only
winning two races worth £1,514 during the same year. The Kings magnificent
stallion produced eight winners (none older than three years) of sixteen races worth
,£36,810, and this just sufficed to beat his wonderful sire St. Simon's record of£36, 621,
for forty-five victories, by nineteen of his sons and daughters. The late Colonel
McCalmont's Isinglass came third with ,£27,826, and the fourth sire, Carbine, once more
proved the wisdom of
the Duke of Portland M^HKJ

in bringing back to
England the staunch
Musket blood that had
been fertilised in
Australasia. Two more
of St. Simon's sons,
St. Frusquin and St.
Florian (now dead),
were seventh and eighth
respectively in the
same list ; and, if we
judge sires by the
success of their
daughters as brood-
mares, St. Simon again gets ahead of Springfield, Galopin, Wisdom, Archiduc, Hampton.
Robert the Devil, Isonomy, and Melton, and only yields in pride of place to Bend Or
who, as the sire of Ornament, Sceptre's dam, was superior in this direction to any
other stallion in 1902.

It will therefore be seen that Sceptre's pedigree is interesting not only because of
the direct descent of Persimmon in the male line through Galomn to Voltigenr, but also
because St. Simon's son was mated to a daughter of Bend Or, the grandson of Stockwell;
but a certain school of breeders has arisen which would prefer to emphasize the fact
that through Ornament, Sceptre goes back to Lily Agnes, and finally to a " tap-root,"
or " original mare." which had not produced a classic winner in the female line before

"Our Nell" (1839)

434

o

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

435

Major Brice bred St. Gatien. Sceptre, in fact, they would say, belongs to an

" outside family," just as Barcaldine, Ormonde, or honomy did, and if the advice of

these critics had been followed by breeders, the mating which produced Sceptre,

Ormonde, Barcaldine, St. Galien, and honomy (to name no other instances), would

not have taken place; the "best breeding" would, in fact, have been limited

to the descendants of a comparatively few original mares. Even apart from

such a test of results as this, it does not seem, at first sight, as if the

limitation in breeding introduced by the " Figure System " were a good thing.

And though it is with reluctance that I criticise a theory put forward with the

express and laudable

desire of benefiting

English thoroughbred

stock, I must also say

that a consideration of

Sceptres record, and ot

the facts set forth in

my eleventh and twelfth

chapters must weaken

the faith of some ^

racing men in the

deductions of Mr.

Bruce Lowe and Mr.

William Allison, though

nothing can lessen the

interest of the facts

which they have so industriously gathered and presented to the public in their

famous " Figure System." If these gentlemen are correct, their explanation of the

excellence of certain families to-day must also be the explanation of the excellence

of the ancestors of those families fifty or even a hundred years ago. Yet I

question very much whether the Duke of Grafton, Lord Jersey, or Lord Egremont

(to quote only from those names Mr. Lowe quoted) ever traced a pedigree back to

its " tap-root " in the female line ; or, if they did, whether they ever paid more

attention to female descent than to lineage in tail-male ; or, finally, if they paid

attention to female descent at all, whether they considered the first dam, or tap-root

only, without troubling about the rest. It is, of course, a merely mathematical

"Nutieith'' (1840).

436 A HISTORF OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

axiom that our modern pedigrees are far more complicated than those which
had to be considered by breeders in 1 790, and from the multiplicity of branches in
the family tree of every racehorse on the Turf to-day, I should imagine that a
skilful calculator might either establish or refute any theory presented to him that
was based on mares alone. If he studied descent in tail-male alone, however, he
would find it impossible to deny that the stock of Eclipse (or of the Darhy Arabian}
had immeasurably outlasted those of his two great rivals in the male lines. But the
difficulty of concentrating all the virtues of high descent upon the first dam may
be seen not merely in such an involved pedigree as that of Minting, but in the
comparatively simple breeding of a horse of 1789 like Whiskey, who has a dozen
different Eastern ancestresses, or Whalebone (1807), who was bred by the Duke of
Grafton, not so much, if Mr. Bruce Lowe and Mr. Allison be correct, for the sake of
the Eclipse descent of Waxy, with both Herod and Snap blood returned by Penelope,
as for the sake of one particular matron who was picked out of ten Royal mares, six
unknown mares, four strains of Tregonwell's Natural Barb Mare, four of the Layton Barb
Mare, three of the Old Vintner Mare, and one each from the Byerly Turk Bustler Marc,
Thwaitcs' Dun Mare, Old Woodcock, the Old Pied Mare, and a Godolphin Mare.

Are we to believe that the Duke was simply trying (in all these alternatives) to
get from the blood of TregoawelFs Natural Barb Mare those qualities which he would
have noticed (on the same hypothesis) that her blood had conferred on Goldfinder,
Woodpecker, Rhadamanthus, Dccdalus, Waxy Pope, and Scud? Was that his real
reason for mating Matchents great-granddaughter with Eclipse's son ? I fancy that
in the more than a hundred years which had elapsed since the death of the famous
Barb matron, His Grace had seen other causes at work which weighed more seriously
with him than her personality ; and, if so, how much more complicated had those
causes become in those other descendants of hers in the female line, The Lambkin,
Ladas, Canterbury Pilgrim, or Chelandryt Or take the case of Sceptre's sire, Per-
simmon, in order to reverse the process of argument for a moment. Of the thirty-two
strains of original mares to which he can be traced, twelve are the Burton Barb A fare,
seven are " Royal Mares," four are the Trcoonwell Natural Barb Mare, two from the
Byerly Turk Bustler Mare. Yet Mr. Allison attributes his excellence to none of these,
but to D' Arcy' s Blacklegoed Royal Mare, because, though he inherits but a single strain
of her, yet she is his "first dam," or "tap-root." Even taking the order in which
Mr. Lowe and Mr. Allison arrange the value of their original matrons, we find
that of the originals to which Persimmon can be traced the Burton Barb Marc

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

437

(12 strains) is placed second, the Tregowwell Natural Barb Mare (4 strains) is placed
first. Yet these authors wish us to believe that Persimmon is what he is because of
his one strain of the D' Any Blacklegged Royal Mare, whom they place seventh in
order of value. But this is not all, for animals so differently bred as West Australian,
Donovan, and Flying Fox, can also be traced back to the same tap-root as Persimmon,
so that Mr. Allison would have us believe that this same Blacklegged Royal Mare has
(for instance) influenced the line which goes from Blacklock to Voltaire, to Voltigeur,
to Vedette, to Galopin, to St. Simon, and to Persimmon, as much as the line from Counts
to Humphrey Clinker, to Melbourne and to West Australian ; apart from the further
hypothesis that in the

breeding of Perdita II.
the Blacklegged Royal
Ma re h a cl m ore
influence than Touch-
stone, Neivminster,
Lord Clifden. or
Hampton. Surely it is
putting too high a
value on a single
female strain to suppose
that its influence is
paramount (after a
good deal more than
two centuries) over
such strong and such
varied combinations of male influences, and in days when the conditions of breeding
and racing are entirely different to those enjoyed by the original ancestress thus
selected.

And lastly let me turn to an example taken from the other end of Mr. Allison's
list of matrons. I have quoted the first six or seven, and I will now look
at No. 38, Thwailes' Dun Mare. She, I find, is the tap-root of PotSos, whose
fortunes and family (in tail-male) we have followed in previous pages.
He was supposed, let me repeat it, to be the best horse of the eighteenth
century, by competent judges. Whatever their opinion may be worth, we have
the facts of his own record and of his produce to guide us. Taking horses of

VOL. II. 3 M

•" Blue Bonnet " (1839) by " Touchstone.''

438 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

about his own time, we find that Goldfinder and Woodpecker are traced back (on the
figure system) to a matron of so much higher value that she is 37 places ahead of the
tap-root of PotSos, first on the list, in fact ; Phenomenon' ' s ancestress is 36 ahead ;
Paymaster s and Justice s 35 ; Wildair1 s, Sweet }]riiiiaiii s and Plunder1 s, 34 ;
Trent/iam's and Florizel's, 33 ; and the list might be similarly analysed all through
the years when PotSos was alive. Now if these original mares were really the sources
of excellence in various racers, it is clear that the strength of their influence would
be felt more strongly before other conflicting strains of blood had been at work than
in later years when the original strain would have to work through many complicated
channels. We should, in fact — all theories apart— have expected that any ancestress
which could count PotSos in her direct line, would, if she had been responsible for his
excellence, have gone on producing sires or winners. Yet we can only find one winner
of the Derby to her name, Sir Thomas (1788), and no more sires at all, from that day
to this. If, on the other hand, it is to the daughter of Massy1 s Black Barb that we
are to put down the excellence of Gladiateur (1862), or of Galtce More (1894), how
are we to explain the fact that when her influence was far purer upon her descendants
she never produced a Derby winner before 1807 (E/ecn'oi.] or a St. l.eger before 1801
(Quiz], and this in spite of the fact that, if Mr. Allison is right, her merit in a list of
fifty is as the fifth to the thirty-eighth {PotSos)} Mr. Allison says, and very possibly
with complete accuracy, that a family takes a long time to establish its female line,
but that once established that line is firm. This may be urged to account for the
advance from the Paymaster of 1766 to the Isinglass of 1890, in the family of the dam
of the two True Blues ; but if so, it can scarcely be urged also as an explanation of the
lonely splendour of PotSos and Sir Thomas in the family of Tlnvaites Dun Mare.
Another thing also stands in need of explanation. If we accept the very large:
assumption that it is to these original mares rather than to any male influence that our
modern thoroughbreds owe their excellence, how is it that that excellence is not as
much attributed (in Family No i, for instance) to Promise, Prunella, Penelope,
Clementina, Prairie Bird, Queen BertJia and the rest, as to any male interlopers. And
if in Family No. 2 there occur such mighty matrons as Crucifix, Hermione, or
Martha Lynn, why are they subordinated in value to the Burion Barb Mare ? Was
it really more to the clam of the two True Blues than to Pocaliontas that we owed
Stpckwell or King Tom ?

I have quoted already so many of the interesting statistics which form a part of
Mr. Allison's elaboration of Mr. Bruce Lowe's system, that I shall not be suspected

TRAINING AND BREEDING.

439

of any depreciation either of the knowledge or of the industry of these gentlemen.
Mr. Allison has certainly established that, other things being equal, a mare of a good
family is better than a mare of a bad family. But this doctrine has been acted upon
for a long while already, and I cannot see that any grounds have been furnished for
elaborating a further advance upon the interesting statistics Mr. Allison has collected,
statistics which seem to me to have a value entirely independent of the Figure
System — or any other system which may be founded upon them ; and it is in a
purely independent manner that they have been used in this book.

The Duke of Schlvsmig-Hohteiifs "Zampa"

440

CHAPTER XVII.

LORD GEORGE BENTINCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF.

" Censor Mornm Castigaforque."

" What though no Dinner Stakes e'er greet the sight,
Nor Port nor Claret thirsty soul* invite ;
What though no Garden stakes can boast their reign,
Nor ancient Oatlands spread their rich domain !
Can these alone a truebotn sportsman fire —
These only fan an Englishman's desire ?
Not so. The glory of the Whip shall last,
If I may judge the future by the past,
While grow on land PotSos, Sharks on seas,
While Drones give trouble to the lab1 ring bees,
While Creepers spread, while smiths the Anvil raise,
And in each sign St. George the Dragon slays,
While lives in Egypt's variable story
Tli". Sultan's, Mameluke's or Memnon's glory!"

r T ^HE writer of this punning epitaph on various defunct races, buoyed up, as he
undoubtedly was, by the thought of the many sires and winners he knew,
would have been very much surprised if he could have seen the future which he
proposed to "judge by the past." The period of extraordinary development which
is associated with the name of Sir Charles Bunbury and his friends, produced, as
was inevitable, a few of those evils which are the necessary concomitants of abnormal
growth. If the Turf was to become a national institution those evils had to be
checked by one who was conversant with their growth — no faddist, but a man made
strong by knowledge, and a man whose position would give him wide authority in
other spheres than those of racing. Lord George Bentinck was the man for the
occasion. He effected one of the revolutions in Turf procedure, which has since

LORD GEORGE BENT1NCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 441

changed its whole conduct, when he vanned Elis to Don caster, a revolution which
can only be paralleled by that created through the rise of telegraphy and the daily
press But his reforms were even more important, for if the rascality he checked
had been allowed to flourish the grave of the English Thoroughbred might have
been dug forthwith. That outburst of the worst forms of villainy was only a natural
disease through which the racing body politic had to pass in its progress towards
maturity. Accidental symptoms of a similar nature occur in that body at all ages,
just as they must do in any healthy organic growth. But those critics who think
they are peculiarly encouraged by racing are mistaken. Faddist legislators
may be surprised to learn that their agitation at the present time, however
excellent may be their motives, would, in its results, be exactly on a par with the
schemes of those scoundrels who brought thirty-four " Qui Tam" actions between
July i and December 31, 1843, against Lord George Bentinck, Mr. Bowes,
Mr. Crockford, Colonel Peel, Mr. Charles Greville, Mr. Henry Hill, the Earl of
Eglinton, Sir William H. Gregory, Mr. John Gully, Mr. Peter Cloves, Mr. Henry
Justice, Mr. John Baily, and Mr. John Greatrex. If these actions had succeeded the
Turf would have received a blow from which it would never have recovered. They
were only brought as a deliberate piece of revenge upon Lord George for excluding
scoundrels from Goodwood first, and then from all courses under the control of the
Jockey Club. After their defeat the Duke of Richmond brought the " Manly Sports
Bill" before the House of Lords in February, 1844, and the position of Lord George
Bentinck as " Dictator of the Turf" became even more assured than it had been
before, for he had some time previously given promise of becoming what he
undoubtedly was, the most remarkable racing man of his century. His actual
successes would not alone have entitled him to this distinction, for, like the years of
his predominance, they were fewer than those of many of his contemporaries. It
was from 1830 to 1846 that his influence was especially felt, and before more fully
characterising that particular period it may be well to bring the thread of our history
up to 1830, and to supply those omissions in it which the tale of the jockeys in the
last few pages have still left in my narrative.

The value to the historian of such fixtures as the St. Leger, Oaks, and Derby is
that at least from 1776 it becomes possible to find definite records of the best three-
year-olds, and often to learn more about them, both from the pen of the chronicler
and the brush of the artist, than might have been possible had not these classic
struggles lent a lustre to their names. There were, of course, fine animals " outside

442

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TCRF.

the classics " a hundred years ago, just as there are now ; but they in turn become
conspicuous by this very absence, and I have chosen a few of the most prominent
animals in the first few decades of the nineteenth century for illustration in these
pages, without confining myself to these races, but largely guided by their results
and by my desire rather to reproduce typical instances than to fill my pages merely
with portraits that are well known already.

One of the great " four-milers " of those early days was Earl FitzWilliam's Orville

By permission of His Majesty the King
and H.R.H. Piince Christian.

" Orville" (1799) by " Beningbrough."

by Beninobrouoh. He stood over 16 hands, and evidently so impressed H. B. Chalon
with his size that that artist has exaggerated his proportions in the painting I
reproduce from Cumberland Lodge, by the kind permission of His Majesty the King
and the courtesy of Prince Christian. In the St. Leger of 1802 he took the lead at
the start, was never headed, and won easily. His courage and wind were
inexhaustible, and, in 1807, when eight years old, he won all seven races for which
he was entered. This was Lord FitzWilliam's second St. Leger and young John
Singleton's first and last, for the jockey died three months later. One of Orville s

LORD GEORGE BENT1NCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 443

Mr. Udny's "Emi/ius" (1820) by "Orvillc."

sons, EmiliuS) won the
Derby of 1823, and
became the sire of
Pic n ipote n tia ry and
other good ones. His
get were all so good-
looking that Recovery
was chosen as a model
for the old monument
to the Duke of
Wellington. As a typi-
cal mare of the same
period I have repro-
duced Mus Coiner.
Colonel Mellish won his second consecutive St. Leger in 1805 with that capital

bay colt Stave ley by Shuttle, and, as was only to be expected with such an owner, the

betting was terrific. The popular colonel had won the year before with Sancho, who

beat Lord Darlington's Pavilion (by Waxy] in 1805, another of Chalon's tall horses,

painted, with Chifney up, in the picture from which I reproduce W. Ward's

engraving. If only the gallant hussar had left the dicebox alone his career

throughout would have

been as successful and

as honourable as it was

upon the Turf. The

son of the Squire of

Blyth, near Doncaster,

with a large mansion

and noble; estate, young

Mellish entered upon

life with more than

usual promise. His

reputation for scholar-
ship extended beyond

his school career, and

SOOn after he had " Kecomy" (1827) by • Kmitius.

444

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

entered the Prince of Wales's Own he made his mark in many different directions.
He was a fine whip and a splendid rider across country. Tom Cribb thought that
when trained he was the best man of his weight in the ring. As a handicapper of
horses he was unsurpassed, and it was, therefore, very appropriate that it was
Colonel Mellish's Eagle (by Volunteer) which first inspired in his great successor,
Admiral Rous, that passion for the thoroughbred which ended only with his death
in 1877. He went out to the Peninsula as aide-de-camp to Sir Rowland Ferguson,
and was recognised by a general as having been " in the cockpit at York " only a
month before. For all that, he was given the imperishable reputation of having

proved himself " one of
the best officers in the
Service," by no less a
personage than the
Duke of Wellington
himself. That race
with Pavilion was for
three thousand guineas
a side, at Lewes, over
a four-mile course, and
so heavily was Mellish
engaged that he went
up to the Regent's
carriage on the course
and merrily asked,
" Which of you will

engage me for his coachman if I am beaten ? " But he was worth a hundred
Sir John Lades. After losing all his own money he married well enough to
settle down quietly on a farm at Hodsack Priory, not far from the Yorkshire
acres that had once been his. But he died before he was forty-five, and the table on

J

which he played Hazard with the Prince on that last night at Blyth is preserved at
Doncaster to this day. There is probably only one other piece of furniture that has
seen such games, and that is at St. Anne's Hill, Chertsey, where you may still
wander in the rooms where Charles James Fox was just as happy when he lost as
when he won.

The name of Mellish is one of the most romantic memories in a race that, to my

Col. Mellish's ' Stavelcy"1 (1802) by " Shuttle."

Oi

UNi

L ORD GEORGE RENTINCK A ND THE EVOL UTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 445

mind, has more varied and more picturesque associations than any other on the Turf.
The very beginning of the St. Leger, before it was named, took place at a time
that was full of portents and omens to the greater and the less. Lord North
had just got news that the New York colonists were melting down the statue
of George III., upon their Bowling Green, into bullets, a new dock had just been
opened at Hull, when the first Yorkshire roar at a St. Leger winner swelled into what
Byron called the " earthquake shout of victory." The very name the race obtained

" Ebur" (1814) by " Orville."

goes back to the foundations of our history. For handsome Jack St. Leger did not
bear the motto " Haul et Bon" for nothing. It was with arms and hand resting on
a St. Leger that William the Conqueror stepped ashore at Bulverhythe near Hastings,
and gave the lands of Ulcombe in Kent to that stout comrade as his guerdon. A
Thomas St. Leger married Anne, sister of Edward IV., and widow of the Duke of
Exeter. One branch of the family through Lord Lieutenant Anthony, goes to the
Donerailes ; another to the Dukes of Rutland. Lord Rockingham could scarce have
made better choice.

VOL. II. 3 N

446

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH 1URF.

By 1818, the year when Plambletonian died, the long peace that followed Waterloo
sent many more people to the Turf than had ever gone racing before ; and the ranks
of Dandies, Exquisites, and Ruffians who met at Tattersall's as at a club, were swelled
by the numbers of sportsmen who had been out at the front, a state of things very
much like that noticeable in 1902 and 1903 after a much larger army had come back
from South Africa. In 1818, Mr. Thornhill, of the famous Riddlesworth stud, was
a prominent figure He won the Derby of 1818 and 1820, and the Oaks of 1819, and

" Reveller " (1815) by " Com us."

the blood he preferred was Whisker, Merlin and Orville. The son of the original
" Old Tattersall " had died in January, 1810, but Mr. R. Tattersall and his brothers
had succeeded to the business and his voice, and the sharp knock of his hammer was
to be heard above all the din and bustle. In 1817 there was an especially vivacious
meeting which deserves more particular mention, for it was caused by the downfall of
a mighty champion

One of OmUle's sons, Mr. Peirse's Ebor, won the St. Leger of 1817, and beat the
mighty Blacklock by half a neck, " wide of all the rest," when John Jackson was

447

£

448

A tilSTORy OF THE ENGLISH TURl<\

actually pulling Mr. Watts' great bay back to his horses. Tommy Sykes, standing at
the distance, settled BlacklocKs chances, for what should have been an easy victory,
by shouting, as soon as he saw the three lengths lead, " Pull till 'em, John, pull till
'em, thou hast it all thy own way " ; but unluckily Johnson heard as well, and so
just caught the winner on the post. Blacklock is perhaps as glaring an instance as
any of the best horses in the field not having his name recorded on that special roll of
fame; but he made up for it nobly afterwards. It is through his son Voltaire that
he is the direct ancestor of St. Simon, and Persimmon, a line of blood that is worth
more than many personal victories.

Other instances of good horses of that time, who are none the worse for similar

omissions, are Sir
Charles Bunbury's un-
defeated black, Tiinn-
dcrbo/l, by Sorcerer, who
only ran twice owing to
a broken fetlock ; and
Mr. Peirse's Rosette, of
whom there is a good
engraving by Ward
with John Shepherd in
the saddle. Her son
Reveller, by Counts,
another of Mr. Peirse's,
won the St. Leger of
1818, the same owner's
Ranter (another Com/is colt) coming in second after making the running at the
start. This was not only a second consecutive win for the same owner, but also for
the same jockey, and the first three horses were all sons of Comiis ( The Marshal was
a grey) and all trained by W. Peirse. Reveller had a fine record afterwards,
his most famous races being his second victory for the Gold Cup, at Lancaster, and
his defeat of the famous Dr. Syntax for the Preston Cup, which that wonderful
horse had won for seven years off the reel. Like that of Rosette and Blacklock, the
name of Rubens does not appear in the St. Leger list, but this fine son of Buzzard,
own brother to Castrel and Selim, won the Craven Stakes of 1810, and was one of
the best horses Lord Darlington ever bought from the Prince of Wales. Pericles,

•A

"Barefoot1' (1820) by " Tramp."

L ORD GEORGE BENTINCK AND THE EVOL UTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 449

too, by Evander, was a grandson of Precipitate, and was immortalised by Ben Mar-
shall for winning the Gold Cup at Stanford (4 miles), and walking over for the Whip.
The Duke of Grafton's Partisan, though good as a four-year old, was more famous
a sire, as might have been expected from a bright bay son of Walton out of Parasol
by PotSos. Anticipation proved the value of the Hambletonian blood (he was out of
Hyale by Phenomenon} by winning the Ascot Gold Cup in 1816 and 1819. Fleur de
Lis, a bay daughter of Bourbon by Sorcerer, was one of the best mares Sir Matthew

' 'Jerry " ( 1 82 1 ) by " Smolensko. ' '

White Ridley ever bred, and only lost Memnons St. Leger owing to having been
thrown down. She was sold to George IV., won the Doncaster Cup in 1826 (beating
Humphrey Clinker} and ran a dead-heat with Mcmnon for second place next year. In
1829 she beat Mameluke for the Goodwood Cup, and was kissed by Delme Radclifle
for doing it. In 1830 she beat Zinganee, Tiie Colonel and Glenartney for the Good-
wood Cup again; and in her third effort (at nine years old) for the same race she only
succumbed to Priam, the best horse on the Turf then, and in the opinion of many
good judges one of the six best of that century.

450

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

But I have said enough to show that the Blue Ribbons of the Turf were not
always bestowed on the best horses of the year, then or now, and I can return with a
o-ood conscience to the St. Leger roll for a few more examples of the thoroughbred
of the day. By 1820 the popularity of that famous race was so firmly established
that no less than twenty-seven horses ran, then the largest field. Ditminanc made
all the running to the distance, where Sir E. Smith's St. Patrick (another lucky
mount for Johnson) went to the front and won in a canter. He showed his breeding

Lard Scarborough's "Tarrare" (1823) by " Cation.'

(by Walton from a daughter of Dick Andrews) by winning at York, Ascot, and
Pontefract in 1821. An example of a bad horse winning was Antonio in 1819, who
never did anything else, before or afterwards, and only scored the St. Leger by
five horses being left at the post. The race was run again without him and won by
Sir Walter, but the Stewards awarded it to Antonio (by Octavian, dam by Evander).
The field was not brilliant. The race for 1822 was still more surprising, for Theodore
was so lame that his jockey burst into tears at being ordered to ride him, and odds
of £ 1,000 to a walking-stick were laid against him. He was bustled off from the

LORD GEORGE BENTINCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 45 I

Hon. E. L. Mostyii's " Queen of Trum/>s"
(1832) by " Velocipede. '

start with a sharp touch
of the spurs, got the
lead before he had time
to think, and showed he
was not BlacklocKs half-
brother for nothing by
landing the Leger for
Mr. Petre, to the con-
sternation of everybody
else except Mr. Mills
who had bought Mr.
Petre's book and all his
chances for ,£200.

In the next year
another confusion was

made with the start. After three futile efforts, twenty-three of the twenty-seven

went the whole way, Mr. Peirse's Carnival winning. But this time the Stewards

ordered a fresh race, in which 12 out of the 27 started and Mr. Peirse's colt (another

Counts] only got fourth, the first being Mr. Watts' chestnut Barefoot by Tramp, who

passed Comte d? Artois 400 yards from home. Bill Scott's first St. Leger winner

was Jack Spigot, who

hated him so heartily

that he would never

bear the sound of his

voice again. Mr. T.

Orde Powlett's son of

Ardrossan (or Marmioti)

was a beautiful colt, and

won his race cleverly by

half a length. Jerry 's

victory — he was a black

son of Smolensko, owned

by Mr. Gascoigne —

was a better one, and

Brutandorf was among Mr. John /faces'" J///W/>" (1832) />v • Cotton:

452 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

the beaten. The finish was, however, very exciting, for Jerry had waited all
the way ; Streatham led from the start to a distance and a-half from home ;
there he was cut down by Canteen, who in turn was passed by Bmtandorf, and
Miller of Mansfield, only to beat both of them and be caught at the Stand by
Jerry. In 1827 Jerrv also beat Lord Scarborough's Tarrare (by Cation] who won
the St. Leger of 1826, from a big field very cleverly, by half a length. Again
there was big money won, for Tarrare started at twenty to one against, and credited
Mr. James Bland with ,£30,000, while Lord Scarborough's household got ,£2,500
between them. There were, however, more horses in Mcmnons year (1825), when
thirty faced the starter and the result was sent to London by carrier-pigeons, and to
Manchester by trained dogs. This was the fiftieth race since its establishment,
and it was signalised by various alterations. The entrance was fixed at ,£25 ; the
weights at 8st. 6lb. for colts and 8st. 3lb. for fillies ; the course at i mile 6 furlongs
132 yards, which it has been ever since. Now, too, the formal parade and canter
of the horses was instituted ; more stands were erected ; and the new arrangements
were not long before they received an appropriate consecration.

It was another of the offspring of Counts who was destined to confer undying
lustre upon the season of 1827. In that year Sir Francis Doyle was an Eton boy, on
a visit with Lord Scarborough at Sir William Cooke's house. He started to ride to
Doncaster but was knocked off his pony by the branch of a tree. However, his
Muse protected him, and inspired so much anticipation of great things to come that
he got into his saddle and went on to the racecourse, where he saw " one of the most
interesting and remarkable races of the century," which he immortalised in his well-
known poem. The rivalry between North and South was always keenest when a
Southern-trained Derby winner came up to Doncaster. North- country horses had
proved their worth at Epsom since Mr. Cookson's Sir Harry won the Derby of
1798, and between that date and 1836 are such names as Mr. Christopher Wilson's
Champion, Sir H. Williamson's Ditto and Pan, the Duke of Portland's Tiresias, Mr.
Ridsdale's Sf. Giles, and Mr. John Bowes' Miindig (by Cat ton], who was unplaced in
Queen of Trumps' St. Leger. But in 1827 there was exceptional interest in the fact
that Mr. John Gully had bought Mameluke, that year's Derby winner, for ,£4,000, with
the object of winning the great North- country race. This man deserves special
mention as a typical character of his time, and his operations are especially interesting
in the light of Lord George Bentinck's career a little later.

John Gully was a Gloucestershire man, born at the Crown Inn, WTick, and first

LORD GEORGE BENTINCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 453

found that he could use his fists when he thrashed a bullying prize-fighter for setting his
dog unfairly at a bull. After that, he found himself in a debtor's prison where Pearce,
" the Game Chicken," gave him lessons, and suggested a match which was finally
arranged through the good offices of Colonel Mellish. Pearce had been brought up to
town by Jem Belcher after that extraordinary natural fighter lost his eye from the blow
of a racquet-ball, and had promptly smashed the pretensions of Joe Berks (twice), of
Elias Spray and of Stephen Carte. Backed by Colonel Mellish, Gully fought his
old tutor and met his only defeat, for after a desperate battle Pearce proved himself
unequalled, and though Gully always
asserted he could have gone on, his
backer threw up the sponge, and
Pearce claimed the championship. It
was challenged from a very unex-
pected quarter. Jem Belcher insisted
on fighting his old friend, and was
backed with 500 guineas by Mr.
Hitcher Reid, who was not alone in
believing that " the Napoleon of the
P. R." could not be beaten even with
only one eye. Captain Halliday
joined in backing the Game Chicken
with Colonel Mellish, in whose park
at Blythe, some ten miles from the
St. Leger course, the fight came off
on December 6th, 1805. It ended
by a terrific blow from the Chicken
which broke two of Belcher's ribs in
the eighteenth round. Again, against advice, Belcher emerged from retirement to
fight Tom Cribb at Moulsey Hurst, in April, 1807. The road from London looked
like the road to Epsom on the Derby Day, and the company was almost as good, for
it included the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV. Belcher's extraordinary
skill and activity were only beaten by Cribb's stolid endurance and thick skull. Twenty
to one on him went begging. After a splendid fight his knuckles were driven in, his
hands became utterly useless, and he had to acknowledge a glorious defeat. By 1808
Gully had retired from the championship and the P.R., and Cribb, trained by Captain

VOL. II.

Mr. John Gully. M.P.

O

454

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

Barclay, once more faced Belcher at Epsom Downs in February, 1809, and won by
sheer condition, and the same hard training which enabled him to stand up so long
against Molineaux two years afterwards, that the black's wind finally went and Cribb
broke his jaw with a terrific cross- counter from the right. Not in England only did
the English P. R. exercise its ascendency at this time. In Paris Lord Henry Seymour,
yqunger son of the third Marquis of Hertford, was backing Owen Swift, and was
encouraged in his patronage by the Rothschilds, the Due de Chartres, Captain

Gronow, Lord Petersham, the
Marquis of Waterford, and many
more. In England itself, statesmen
did not disdain to watch the furious
fray when among the spectators were
such men as the Rt. Hon. William
Windham, Lord Althorp, Sir Robert
Peel, and Lord Palrnerston ; and
when, among its chroniclers, Litera-
ture could number William Hazlitt,
"Christopher North," George Borrow,
William Makepeace Thackeray, Lord
Houghton, Charles Kingsley, and Tom
Hughes ; nor could Racing circles
stand aloof when Assheton Smith,
George Osbaldeston, Sir Tatton
Sykes, and George Payne were
keenly interested. Brutal it may have
been, in many ways. But I doubt
whether modern " boxing competitions " are an improvement on it, and in any estimate
of the Turf as Lord George Bentinck found it the influence of the P.R. cannot be
omitted. It was with the halo of his former triumphs in the P.R. that John Gully first
took up racing, and he could never go to Newmarket without the crowd remembering
his fight with Gregson for the belt in 1807 at Six Mile Bottom, and his repeated victory
next year in Sir John Sebright's park, in Hertfordshire. He had not fought as often
as many men ; but he had done enough, and by 1830, when he was a betting partner
with Ridsdale, his fame at " the corner " was at its zenith ; his carriage was dignified
and manly, his countenance calm, but defiant, and he looked what he was, one of the

John Jackson.

LORD GEORGE BENTINCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 455

strongest men of his time. But he did not get on well with his friends. He horse-
whipped Ridsdale, and there was a regular view-halloa in court when the verdict for
damages against him was proclaimed. Squire Osbaldeston had to put a bullet
through his hat, too, to teach him manners, a lesson from which even the great Lord
George himself was not exempt. His confederacy with Harry Hill brought about
the downfall of Danebury, for the time. His taciturnity on a racecourse was only

Hon. E. Petre's "Matilda" (1824) by " Comus."

equalled by his judicious silence as a member of Parliament, where his name to this
day is preserved in the honourable position of the First Commoner of England.

To see the betting rooms at Doncaster in such a year as Margrave's St.
Leger was to realise that some reforms were necessary ; Crockforcl disputing with
Jemmy Bland in choicest Billingsgate ; Ord shouting bibulous disapproval from the
top of a table ; Gully waiting with threatening brows to see what would happen next ;
the white, sardonic countenance of the old Duke of Cleveland watching the whole
uproar. But the doings of Messrs. Gully, Hill, Pedley, Arnold, and Turner, the
members of what was known as the Danebury Confederacy, must not yet concern us.

456

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

It will be enough to say that they helped to make the betting considerably hotter than
was necessary. One year, however, Gully lost. It was over Jerry, and a friend who
had taken his advice lost upwards of .£28,000, which he only wiped off in part by
following the same astute mentor and backing Memnon in 1828. Gully and Ridsdale
were baulked in 1827 because Croft and Mr. Gascoigne smelt a rat, and at the last
moment gave the mount to Ben Smith instead of Edwards. Mr. Gully's b.c.
Mameluke (by Partisan] was only beaten at the last moment by Mr. Petre's Matilda,

"Sir Hercules" (1826) by " Wlialebone?

a ComusGlly, who was very little over fourteen hands as a yearling, and turned into
one of the smartest three-year-olds ever saddled. Mr. Petre won again the next year
with The Colonel, who ran a dead-heat for the Derby with Cadland, as is shown in
the fine painting I reproduce for the frontispiece to this volume by permission of Mr.
Leopold de Rothschild. He ran another dead-heat at Ascot for the Oaklands, and
when he stood at the Hampton Court stucl he was "the beau ideal of an English
thoroughbred." Memnon s year must not be passed over, for it was rendered memo-
rable by Gully's extreme confidence in the powers of Mr. Watts' bay son of Whisker.

LORD GEORGE BENTlNCK AND THE EVOLUTION Of THE MODERN TURE. 457

His sporting owner re-
fused an offer of 4,000
guineas two months
before the race from
parties who had bet
heavily against him, on
the very proper ground
that " till after the St.
Leger he was the pro-
perty of the public."
Who the would-be pur-
chasers were may be
guessed from the fact
that Gully had netted
(i) 1,000 to 25 that Memnon and Alderman were first and second ; (2) 1,000 to 20
that he placed these two horses; (3) 1,500 to 1,000 that if first and second were
their places, Memnon would be first. Memnon was by Whisker, and Whalebone had
two good sons about the same time.' The first was Sir Hercules, who was third to
Rowton and Voltaire, in 1829, won the Claret Stakes of 1830, and became the sire of
Birdcatcher, Maria, Gemma di Vergy, and many other good ones ; the second was
Spaniel (" with hide of silk and heart of oak "), who won the Derby of 1831. I have

already spoken of the

" Oxygen " (1828) by " Emilins."

's fer" (1828) by "Lottery."

beauty of Emili'us get ;
his reputation was yet
further increased by the
victory of Oxygen for
the Oaks in 1831. The
St. Leger of the same
year was won by Lord
Cleveland's Chorister,
the first of Lottery's
stock to race, who only
just beat The Saddler,
after an exciting finish,
by a head.

458

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

This brings us to the period from 1830 to 1846, which I had marked out as the
years with which the name of Lord George Bentinck is chiefly connected. I have
illustrated the horses of that period rather fully, for they were a remarkable lot in
many ways ; but I must now turn for a short time to the men. The reign of George
IV. had, of course, produced many ardent Turfites who had followed in their Royal
master's footsteps. Many, like his " Master of Horse," Delme Radcliffe, have been
already mentioned. The Duke of York (who died in 1827) was equally conspicuous.
Colonel Udny and Mr. Hunter (who won the Derby with a grey in 1821) carried
on the traditions of the old school, represented by Lord Egremont, who won his first
Derby in 1782 with Assassin, and his last in 1826 with Lapdog. Other famous

owners were the Duke
of Rutland (Cad/and),
Lord Jersey (the two
Middlctons, Glenartney
and Mameluke], Sir John
Shelley (Phantom), the
Duke of Portland, owner
of Tircsias, and father of
Lord George Bentinck,
Lord Exeter, the Duke
of Richmond, and many
more. A conspicuous
figure was Jack Mytton
of Halston, in Shrop-
shire, who came into

large estates at his majority. When only fourteen he wrote to Lord Chancellor
Eldon announcing that, as he intended to marry, £400 a year was not sufficient.
That stern Judge replied : — " If you can't live on your allowance you must
starve, and if you marry I'll commit you to prison." Jack entered the 7th
Hussars a few years later, and began his education in Paris with the Army of
Occupation. He went in for racing as hard as for every other form of sport,
and owned Banker, who won sixteen races, among other good animals. But
gambling killed him. He lost ,£10,000 to Mr. Ester at Calais over a single game of
billiards. By 1831 his estates were gone. By 1834 he died a prisoner for debt.
Before that year George 1 V. had passed away, and Blacklock was no more. Delme

" Spaniel" (1828) by " Whalebone."

LORD GEORGE BENTINCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 459

Radcliffe had gone too, a loss which probably contributed to the withdrawal of

William IV. from a sport which his sympathy had never very warmly supported.

But the Turf was fortunate in having such friends as the fourth Duke of Grafton

(who died in 1844); the fifth Earl of Jersey, who owned Riddleswortli, Glencoc,

Ibrahim, Bay Middleton, and Achmet ; General Peel, the hero of the Running Rein

Derby ; and Sir Mark Wood, of Lower Hare Park, who owned those famous mares,

Camarine and Lucetta. Then there was Major Wilson (Lord Berners), who won the

One Thousand in 1834 and the Derby in 1837 with Mayday, and Phosphorus, both

by Lamplighter ; the Marquis of

Exeter, owner of the flying Galata ;

Mr. C. Greville ; Mr. Houldsworth;

Lord Lowther (second Earl of

Lonsdale), who won with the outsider

Spaniel; Mr. Batson, who owned

Plenipotentiary; Mr. John Bowes,

of Streatlam ; Lord Mostyn, owner of

Queen of Trumps ; the second Earl

Grosvenor (afterwards Marquis of

Westminster), owner of Touchstone;

Lord Chesterfield, and many more,

who were more or less contemporary

with Lord George Bentinck.

It was appropriate that Lord
George's father should have estab-
lished by legal decision (in 1827) the
right of the Jockey Club to warn off
undesirable characters from New-
market Heath, and also that the important change should have been instituted about
this time of calculating horses' ages from January ist instead of May ist. The air
seemed full of reform, and the right man for the work soon made his appearance.

Lord William George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck was born at Welbeck on
February 2;th, 1802, the second son of the owner of Tiresias. The Army and Politics
did their best to divide him between them as soon as he reached man's estate, and
there is a story of a duel in the loth Hussars which does not read very creditably
to Lord George, especially as he found it possible later on to swallow his principles

Lord George Bentinck.

460

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

and meet Mr. Osbaldeston. No one could ever accuse him of want of courage on
either occasion. But he was no doubt offensively arrogant ; and the truth lies rather
between the extravagant hero-worship of John Kent and the deliberate belittlement
of John Day. The removal of his horses from Danebury is a sufficient reason for
the latter, just as the subsequent success of the sky-blue and white is sufficient
explanation of the former. This momentous change, which occurred in 1841,
really marked the crisis of his career. With as many as sixty horses running in
public, a stud of a hundred, three training establishments, and huge subsidiary
expenses, he was obliged to bet heavily to keep it all going. He did. He stood to
win ^150,000 on Gaper for the Derby, and though that horse did not get a place,

Lord George landed
,£30,000 on Cotherstone.
In 1845 ne won
;£ 1 00,000 by betting
alone. But his ex-
penses that year must
have been at least
^50,000, and on Farin-
tosh alone he lost ,£3,000
in stakes. Crucifix,
however, was more than
a compensation. She
won the Two Thousand,
One Thousand, and
Oaks of 1840, the latter
in presence of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, after sixteen false starts.

Dressed in buckskin breeches, made from the hides of his own stags, with well-
cut boots of the orthodox length and antique colouring, a buff waistcoat, a scarf
that was only to be worn once (though it cost a guinea), and a big ruby in it, and
double-breasted coat ornamented by the buttons of the Jockey Club, he made a
characteristic and patrician figure at Newmarket or any other racecourse ; and when
waving the starting flag in his hand and followed by a score of racehorses, as hap-
pened at the Great Yorkshire Handicap, he was certainly a picture not easy to be
forgotten. His reforms at the start, with his "advance-flag," were but a small part
of what he did for the Turf. He forced trainers and jockeys to come out sharp to

" Elis" (1833) by " Langar. "

LORD GEORGE BENTINCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 461

time. He cleared the racecourse of defaulters. He gave frequent and practical
expression of his hatred of all that was cruel and unjust. He did good all round,
because he had done everything himself ever since, in 1824, he had ridden Mr.
Poyntz's chestnut mare Oliva for the Cocked Hat Stakes at Goodwood, the meeting
with which his name is more closely connected than it is with any other.

By 1827 he had already induced his father, the Duke of Portland, to support the
Stakes Cup, and Drawing Room Stakes at Goodwood ; but heavy losses over
Tarrares St. Leger compelled him to give up racing for a time. But he could not
keep off the Turf. In the names of his valued friend, the fifth Duke of Richmond,
with whose help he did so much for Goodwood, of his cousin, Mr. Greville, of Lord
Orford, or of Lord Lichfield, the latter in the case of Elis, Lord George soon had his
horses running on many different courses. But as the Duke of Richmond did not
wish the number of horses running in his own name to be increased at Goodwood,
Lord George established a stud at Danebury, with John Barham Day, and laid out
,£1,500 on bonedust alone. The first stallion, bought from Lord Jersey for .£4,000,
was Bay Middlcton. Though he was the sire of The Flying Dutchman, Andover, and
Hermit, he was not successful for Lord George. Venison did better, but was let to
Mr. Sadler. In fact, if Lord George had not bought largely as well as bred, he
would not have achieved his best successes. Crucifix, for instance, he bought
from Lord Chesterfield for £60. Chapeau d'Espagne and Grey Momus were other
winners he owned at this period, when victories seemed literally to rain upon
him To f^ive some idea of his methods, it is worth mentioning that as soon as

&

he found out Crucifix's form as a yearling, he entered her for every race then
unclosed, and with her every horse he owned of the same age, so that no one should
spot his favourite. Again, the famous episode of vanning Elis to Newmarket had
its business side almost as strongly developed ; for Lord George refused to run the
horse until he could obtain the odds at twelve to one to £1,000, knowing that no one
would be in a position to make such a bet unless he had previously backed Elis heavily
on knowledge which should not have leaked out. He got Elis to the meeting in
time, and won the money ; indeed, as the late Lord Winchilsea observed, " It is diffi-
cult to say what Lord George Bentinck and relays of post-horses could not have
done." In 1844 he ran 38 different horses in 182 races, in places scattered all over
England, and in 1845, 30 horses in 190 races. Emilius, and his sire Priam, shared
his affections with Bay Middleton as sires, and it was chiefly because Crucifix was
Priam's daughter that he bought her, when both she and her aged dam looked

VOL. II. 3 P

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LORD GEORGE BENTINCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 463

about as ragged and unpromising as any bloodstock ever seen. " Lord George,"
wrote Greville in his diary, "did nothing by halves, and was afraid of no man."

His Miss Elis I reproduce from a painting, by Abraham Cooper, now in the
possession of Mr. Leopold de Rothschild, which was presented to Kent in memory
of the triumphs in the Goodwood Stakes and Goodwood Cup, over which Lord
George won £30,000 in bets. Abdale is mounted, John is leading her (dressed in
his Gordon tartan waistcoat), and Kent is on the old grey mare in the Cluny Macpher-
son waistcoat, which is rather hidden by her head. Lord George further suggested
" Kitchener walking away in the distance, loaded with a leathern purse, with ' Good-
wood Stakes' inscribed upon it," but this the artist wisely omitted. It brings those
days much nearer to us to remember that Abdale only died in December, 1902, at
Richmond (Yorks)j in his 78th year. A replica of the painting hangs in Welbeck
Abbey, where the present Duke, who does not bet at all, is just as proud of St. Simon
as ever Lord George was of Miss Elis. But the good Lord George did to the
Goodwood Meeting and to racing in general is not to be measured by the extent of
his own gains or even by the names of his own winners.

There have probably been few greater sensations in the world of sport than that
felt at the Goodwood Meeting of 1846, when it was found that Mr. Mostyn had
bought Lord George's entire racing outfit for ,£10,000. "The world." said
Lord Beaconsfield, " has hardly done justice to the great sacrifice which he made
on this occasion to a high sense of duty. He had not only parted with the finest
racing stud in England, but he parted with it at a moment when its prospects
were never so brilliant, and he knew this well." Among the stud thus abruptly
dispersed was Surplice, the winner of the Derby and St. Leger of 1848 Lord
Beaconsfield describes how Lord George bore that supreme irony of fate. His
resolutions in favour of the Colonial interest had been negatived after all his labours
by the Committee on the 22nd and 24th. On the night of that second day he heard
that the horse he had sold had won the Derby.

" He had nothing to console him and nothing to sustain him except his pride. Even that deserted
him before a heart which he knew at least could yield him sympathy. He gave a sort of superb groan.

" ' All my life I have been trying for this, and for what have I sacrificed it ? ' he murmured.

" It was in vain to offer solace.

" ' You do not know what the Derby is,' he moaned out.

" ' Yes, I do,' replied Lord Beaconsfield, ' It is the Blue Ribbon of the Turf.'

" ' It is the Blue Ribbon of the Turf,' he slowly repeated to himself, and sitting down at a table
buried himself in a folio of statistics."

Four months later he was dead.

464

A HISTORF OF THE ENGLISH TURF.

He was found in a meadow on his father's estate of Welbeck, suddenly slam
by a spasm of the heart. The strain of politics had proved too much for him. " He
never did anything by halves," wrote Greville, '• and having accepted the responsible
post of leader of his party, he resolved to devote himself to their service and
did so without stint or reserve."

During the time he had been on the Turf some magnificent animals made
their reputation. There were, among others, Lord Jersey's undefeated Bay
Middleton ; Elis ; Cyprian; Mr. Ord's Beeswing, by Dr. Syntax, the pride of
Northumberland, who won the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster in 1835, and
beat Charles XII. for the Cup in 1842 ; Harka-way, by Economist (foaled in
Ireland), with his huge easy stride, Industry by Priam, Bloomsbury, by Mulatto,
Mr. Thornhill's Euclid, by Emilius, the Marquis of Westminster's Satirist,
by Pantaloon, and his sister Ghnznce, Our Nell, Colonel Anson's Attila,
Touchstone s son Cotherstone, who won one of Mr. John Bowes' Derbys, Bine
Bonnet, by the same great sire, Lord Chesterfield's Don John, Coronation, by
Sir Hercules, Nutwith, Liuncelot, Weather gage, and many more.

By 1850 we come to that immortal pair, Voltigeur and The Flying Dutchman,
and in the next volume I shall describe more closely the early part of that
Victorian Era in which these two were among the most prominent horses on the
English Turf.

The Duke of Schlesvuig-Holsteiifs '' Logic.'

END OF PARX II., VOL. II.

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