An Old Lincolnshire Family 



we were of an age to understand its mysteries, and the inscrip- 

 tion upon it was explained to us. Thus it ran : 



"Chester Cup, 

 won by William Richardson's Conqueror* in 1788." 



Further, it was explained why this Urn was so particularly 

 beautiful. Its shape always commended itself to us, for children 

 naturally love beautiful things, but we were also shown that 

 the inside of the Urn, where the heater went with its mysterious 

 cover, was all solid silver. It appears that, as well as the 

 Chester Gold Cup of that date, Conqueror also won, during 

 the week's racing at Chester, either a silver cup value £$0, or 

 its equivalent in money. 



Now, Dame Richardson being of a very practical turn of 

 mind, decided that the two cups were not useful, and, as she 

 and her husband had not as yet adopted my father, no doubt 



* Conqueror was an aged horse in 1786 when his record in " Baily's Racing 

 Register " first commences to be recorded. On August 10 that year he won a ^50 

 stake at Nottingham and five days later at Derby secured a similar award in a 

 similar race, i.e. one of four-mile heats. On September 15 he ran in a ^100 race at 

 Stockton, where he finished last of five horses in two of the four-mile heats, and was 

 withdrawn from the third and final heat. In the June of 1787 he won the Members 

 Plate of .£50 at Peterborough, beating four others. One of them was Mr. Galwey's 

 Superb, who seven days later won the Stamford Corporation Plate of ^50. 

 Conqueror next secured the Members Plate of ^50 at Grantham on July 6, and then 

 he was " laid aside " for the two events at Chester in 1788. A month after his Roodeye 

 victories he was running in the name of Mr. Singleton at Beverley, where he won a 

 £50 race decided over two four-mile heats. Except for the defeat at Stockton-on- 

 Tees in 1786, when he may have been lame or, most likely, knocked up by the journey, 

 Conqueror did actually not lose a four-mile heat race. Mr. Richardson very likely 

 being satisfied with the possession of the Grosvenor Gold Cup, a trophy always 

 keenly contested for by the county families — and actually the only trophy that the 

 horse did win — the designation " Plate " being but gentle camouflage for actual 

 " stakes " — his owner doubtless sold him to Mr. Singleton, for whom he won the .£50 

 race at Beverley, and then the game old son of Espersykes departs from the pages of 

 " Baily's Racing Register," leaving behind him the record of a sterling and game 

 stayer. 



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