1 62 MEN OF MY TIME 



at the hands of the general public that greater men for 

 accomplishing greater deeds might have been proud of. 

 Alfred, no doubt, was a good jockey ; which is as much 

 as modesty permits one brother to say of another. But, 

 like other men, he was not infallible. In this race, at 

 least, in spite of the public praise given him, he made a 

 mistake. For had Buckthorn not been very much better 

 than the rest of the horses, he would have been beaten 

 to the greatest certainty on earth. And yet everyone 

 thought that no horse could have been ridden better. 

 But, as a fact, to ride him so hard for so great a distance 

 was more than a mistake. The horse did not get over it, 

 and never afterwards ran so well in public. If this be 

 public opinion, we cannot wonder that ' doctors disagree, 

 and soundest casuists doubt.' For my part, I have seen 

 too many races lost by similar riding to have any mis- 

 giving on the subject. Fisherman, Marionette, and Julius, 

 at Stockbridge, were all beat by lying so far out of their 

 ground, by horses to which, on their public form, they 

 could have given 21 Ib. ; and proved that form by beating 

 their vanquishers afterwards. Yet, on those occasions, 

 the riders were not lauded to the skies for a display of 

 good jockeyship. 



In 1842 I won the Southampton Stakes for his lordship 

 on Iliona, beating eight others, all being placed, an un- 

 usual occurrence, showing the severity of the pace. In 

 those days the race was considered valuable and interest- 

 ing, being just before Goodwood. In that particular year 

 it was specially so, as Retriever, who ran second, the 

 week after won the Goodwood Stakes, beating eighteen 

 others, amongst them being Arcanus, the winner of the 

 Cesarewitch the same autumn. In these days, Lord 

 Palmerston was in the habit, when in town, of going 

 every Sunday afternoon to ' the Corner ' to see the horses 



