226 



RACING. 



<a7-tes of the Turf as any man of his time, has left on record the 

 opinion that, within his experience, which hardly extended 

 beyond 1856, he had known but three inflexibly honest jockeys. 

 His caustic remark applied, of course, to professional horsemen 

 who are now no more, and we shall be wounding no suscepti- 

 bilities by saying that in Mr. Gully's incorruptible trio Frank 

 Buckle was included. The latter was the son of a saddler at 

 Newmarket, and commenced as a lad in the Honourable 

 Richard Vernon's stables at ^. a very early age. 



His first appearance in ^,.->|^ public was on Mr. 



Fantastic tricks at the post. 



Vernon's bay colt Wolt, in 1783, when he rode i lb. short of 

 4 St., including his saddle. He continued riding in public 

 until his sixty-fifth year, and from first to last he could go 

 to the scale at 7 st. 11 lbs. with ease. At the very end of his 

 career he showed that his nerve was still unshaken by winning 

 upon Lord Exeter's Green Mantle in the Second October 

 Meeting of 1828, after the mare had played all sorts of fantastic 

 tricks at the starting-post. 



