MR. THOMAS PARR 21$ 



in needy circumstances, much the same as he began life 

 with. Mr. Barber survived him many years, but I am 

 afraid not in the comfortable position which might have 

 been looked for from his many victories in the palmy 

 days of yore. He died, I believe, in 1885. 



I now give some account of a still more notable person 

 who tried his hands at training without any knowledge 

 of the science. Mr. Thomas Parr, owner, trainer, and 

 jockey, was certainly one of the most remarkable men 

 that I ever remember to have seen or conversed with. 

 His occupation in early life was that of an itinerant 

 dealer in tea, which, for economy's sake, he carried him- 

 self, and sold retail to his customers, sticking strictly to 

 the ready-money system ; a principle rigidly enforced on 

 him by the factors whom he honoured with his patronage. 

 He usually travelled in the West, starting in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Weymouth, wending his way through villages 

 and hamlets to Plymouth. As this business was not 

 congenial to his feelings for the want of success, or other- 

 wise, he soon left it, and plunged into the racing world, 

 and succeeded. 



It has been generally supposed that he only trained 

 for himself, as most of the horses he had ran in his 

 name ; but this was a mistake. He trained for Lord 

 Lincoln (afterwards Duke of Newcastle), Messrs. Sexty, 

 Williams, Thornhill (the baker who succeeded poor Glen, 

 and got broke over Weatherbound' s Cambridgeshire), 

 Eobson, Padwick, Eich, Thellusson, and, as I have 

 specially mentioned, Starkey ; and probably for many 

 others of whom no one ever heard but himself, for he 

 was generally very reticent over his own affairs. He was 

 undoubtedly peculiar in his method of training his horses, 

 both in their exercise and in the management of his 

 stables. Again, contrary to the received opinion, after 



