CHAPTER V 



JOCKEYS 



Royalty was always present at these races, and among 

 the jockeys was the eccentric Lord Barrymore, whose only 

 rival in the saddle was Charles James Fox. Lord Barry- 

 more's best horses were Rockingham and Chanticleer. 



These jockeys of ' high degree ' in this early period of 

 horse-racing wore a ' black velvet cap, with long French 

 peak, and a bow of black satin ribbon behind. Their hair 

 was long, falling to the shoulders ; a white cambric neck- 

 cloth of ample folds was tied at the back. They wore a 

 long body-coat with flaps, wide skirts, knee-breeches, white 

 cotton stockings, and black leather shoes of the Oxford 

 pattern, with silver buckles. The long tails of the coat 

 flapping in a high wind, added no comfort to the rider, 

 and so were tucked inside the breeches ; and the next step 

 was to curtail them entirely.' From this was evolved the 

 jockey's short jacket, now universally worn. 



A celebrated jockey about the year 1775 was Sam 

 Chifney, 'jockey for life' to the Prince of Wales, and rider 

 of the famous Escape. There is a portrait of him by 

 Stubbs, seated on Emperor's back, in which his peculiar 

 slack-rein style of handling his bridle, and his backward 

 seat in the saddle, are exhibited. His methods were so 

 original, that in defence of them he wrote a book called 



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