1773 THE MISTERS 141 



whom Horace Walpole frequently mentions, sometimes 

 under the style and title of Mr. ' Jockey ' Vernon. 

 He lived at Newmarket, and was the * oracle of 

 Newmarket ' ; and it was he whose tenants certain 

 members of the Jockey Club became when he built 

 the rooms which the Club rented in 1771. He bred, 

 owned, and ran almost innumerable horses ; he 

 possessed, if he did not import, the useful Vernon 

 Arabian (sire of the dam of Emigrant, winner of the 

 July Stakes, 1796) ; he won the Jockey Club Challenge 

 Cup, the first year of asking, in 1768, with Marquis 

 (son of the Godolphin Arabian) ; and he won the 

 Oaks with Annette (by Eclipse) in 1787. Nor did Mr. 

 Vernon confine himself to the improvement of the 

 thoroughbred at Newmarket ; he was a notable breeder 

 of peaches, and acquired quite a great reputation for 

 his treatment of them . 



It was with Mr. Vernon, at Newmarket, that Hoi- 

 croft, the dramatist, served his apprenticeship as a 

 stable-boy (by way of preparation for dramatic litera- 

 ture), and, whilst in that service, the future playwright 

 is represented to have seen that determined struggle 

 (over the B.C. for 500 guineas a side, in 1759 appa- 

 rently) between Mr. Jenison Shafto's Elephant and 

 Mr. Vernon' s Forester, on which occasion, according 

 to Holcroft, Forester, finding himself beaten, ' made 

 one sudden spring, and caught Elephant by the under 

 jaw, which he gripped so violently as to hold him 

 back.' No match between Elephant and Forester 



