UPON JOCKE \ '5. 233 



known two incomparable match riders in his time : Jem 

 Robinson during the last, and George Fordham during the 

 present, generation. The former was the son of 'Joppa' 

 Robinson, who, according to the prevailing rumour of to-day, 

 was a small trainer at Newmarket, and supported by the patron- 

 age of Mr. Bullock and of William Crockford (better known 

 as ' Crocky '), but whom, upon the authority of Mr. J. F. Clark, 

 the much-respected Judge at race meetings under the jurisdic- 

 tion of the Jockey Club, we believe to have been a farm 

 labourer. Jem Robinson had the good fortune to commence 

 his career by passing thirteen years in Robson's stables, where 

 he soon attracted the notice of Frank Buckle, who conde- 

 scended to give him many hints for his future guidance. The 

 pair were destined to struggle against each other in many a 

 future match, and that in 182 1 between Lord Exeter's b.c. 

 by Ardrossan out of Vicissitude with Robinson up, and Mr. 

 Udny's Abjer with Buckle on his back (which ended in a dead 

 heat), was never forgotten by those who witnessed it. The 

 Ardrossan colt had ' savaged ' Robinson in the Ditch stables 

 a week before the match, and had bitten off the thumb of 

 his stable lad when he got home after being beaten in his trial. 

 When the match came off Robinson had his revenge, and the 

 punishment inflicted by him on his refractory mount was never 

 forgiven by one of the sulkiest horses that Newmarket ever 

 saw. Two years after, when Robinson visited Burleigh, Lord 

 Exeter persuaded him to enter the colt's box, on the plea that 

 his temper was quite subdued. His first glance at Robinson 

 dispelled the illusion. The savage brute behaved as Ellerdale did 

 when she heard Tom Dawson's voice, as Mentor when he saw 

 Mat Dawson, and as Muley Edris when he had Fred Archer within 

 reach of his teeth. It is, in fact, a well-established truth that 

 the antipathies sometimes conceived by horses against human 

 beings are extinguished only with the lives of the former. 



It is difficult within the few lines at our command to give 

 a correct idea of Robinson's matchless seat in the saddle, but 

 if ever the expression ' dropped from the clouds ' was justly 



