RACING SERVANTS: OLD STYLE AND NEW. 99 



neighbouring farmers, and who was looked up to in his market 

 town as vir sapientia, if not pietate, gravis. Almost unknown 

 to him were the ' lights of London,' and he even regarded 

 Newmarket with some suspicion and dislike, on account of its 

 cosmopolitan tendencies ' flash notions ' he would have called 

 them. 



Rising early, and early taking rest, save in the matter of 

 polygamy he lived in true patriarchal fashion ; faring well, and 

 ruling his lads, and often his entire household, with a rod of 

 remarkably strong and pliant ash. Devoted to the animals 

 under his care, their preparations were of singular severity, and 

 external appearances never belied his assertion that a horse 

 'was wound up and thoroughly clean inside.' A good judge 

 of the raw material, and his own 'vet.,' his pharmacopoeia and 

 practice were alike of the heroic order. 



Often a devout and regular church-goer, his conversation 

 was garnished with expletives of home manufacture which 

 suggested rather than reached the profane. His literary ac- 

 quirements and tastes were few and simple. He could read 

 and write, and knew enough of arithmetic to be able, with assis- 

 tance, to keep his accounts. N.B. His charge for training was 

 about 35.?. a week per horse. His library consisted of some 

 few volumes of sermons and theology, which he did not, and 

 of a Bible and ' White's Farriery,' which he did, peruse. A 

 local newspaper, the * Racing Calendar,' and ' Bell's Life ' (as 

 soon as it came into existence) sufficed for the remainder of 

 his mental sustenance. 



For art he cared but little his walls nevertheless being 

 usually adorned with portraits of himself and wife, chiefly 

 remarkable for a glossiness of hair, brilliancy of complexion, 

 and general want of resemblance, which reflected infinite credit 

 on the imagination of the local artist ; engravings, or sketches 

 in chalk, of county and borough members, if they were racing 

 men ; perhaps a coaching picture or two, and, dearer to him 

 than all, several of those wonderful caricatures in oil of cele- 

 brated Cup horses, which, judging from the stiffness of their 



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