UPON JOCKEYS. 231 



applicable to a jockey, the races in which Rathmines won the 

 Houghton Handicap, Russborough ran a dead heat for the 

 St. Leger, and Flatcatcher triumphed for the Two Thousand, 

 might be quoted as fitting illustrations of the above words. 

 Few frequenters of Doncaster races are now left who witnessed 

 the memorable dead-heat between Job Marson on Voltigeur 

 and Jem Robinson upon Russborough for the St. Leger of 

 1850, but none who saw the struggle will ever forget how the 

 Irish horse swooped down upon the Derby winner in the last 

 dozen strides. ' It was,' in the late Lord Exeter's words, * as 

 fine an exemplification of Jem Robinson's style of finish as had 

 been exhibited by him during the previous fifty years ; ' nor 

 should it be forgotten that the artist who made a dead heat 

 with a horse of far superior quality was himself nearly sixty 

 years old when he rode Russborough. Again we have to 

 chronicle that Robinson's concluding days were passed in 

 poverty and gloom. In his hour of prosperity (far less re- 

 munerative, by the way, than that of his modern successors) it 

 was remarked that all the money gained by him during the 

 racing year was wasted in riotous living in the metropolis during 

 the following winter. From the close of the Houghton until the 

 first day of the Craven meeting Newmarket saw nothing of its 

 crack jockey, while the London lodgings in which he and his 

 equally improvident wife were ensconced from October to March 

 might have suited a nobleman of fortune. But for the kindness 

 of the Dukes of Bedford and Rutland, the rider of Azor, Cedric, 

 Middleton, Mameluke, Cadland, and Bay Middleton for the 

 Derby, of Matilda, Margrave, and Russborough for the St. 

 Leger, of Augusta and Cobweb for the Oaks, and of nine Two 

 Thousand winners, might have died in the workhouse. It was, 

 indeed, with difficulty that his widow was preserved from this 

 fate during the few years for which she survived her husband. 



To attempt within a few brief pages to trace the career and 

 to portray the character of Bill Scott, the most famous north- 

 country jockey that the Turf has ever known, were an im- 

 possible task, although it is not a little singular that the lives of 



