186 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1773- 



surprised the Turfmen, for he not only improved the 

 Boyal Stud and increased the number of Koyal Plates, 

 but at one of the annual dinners which he gave to the 

 members of the Jockey Club, on May 16, 1832, he 

 presented the Jockey Club with one of Eclipse's 

 hoofs, set in gold, as a prize (called ' The Eclipse Foot ') 

 to be run for annually (plus * 200 sovs. added by His 

 Majesty and a sweepstakes of 100 sovs. each [after- 

 wards 50 sovs.] for horses the property of members of 

 the Jockey Club ') at Ascot. It was first run for in 

 1832, and won by Lord Chesterfield's famous horse 

 Priam, and was last challenged for, apparently, in 

 1835, by Mr. Bat son (owner of the great Plenipoten- 

 tiary), after which it seems to have commanded neither 

 race nor even challenge, and to have become ultimately 

 a snuff-box at the Jockey Club Booms, Newmarket. 

 (The more is the pity, one feels inclined to say). Not 

 that it was at all extraordinary for a sailor to patronise 

 the Turf ; it is extraordinary rather that he should 

 have had so little personal liking for it witness 

 Admirals Norris, Bous, Harcourt, and the names, at 

 any rate, of Boscawen, Howe, Hawke, &c. Why, one 

 of the earliest ' horsey ' anecdotes of this century has 

 for its hero ' a naval officer ' who ' undertook, for a 

 wager, to ride a blind horse round Sheerness race- 

 course, without guiding the reins with his hands,' 

 which the wily ' salt ' accomplished by cutting the 

 reins and fastening them to the stirrups so as to 

 ' steer ' with his feet. It was in Mr. D. Badcliffe's 



