50 THE TURF 



the day at Newmarket, and was considered 

 particularly to excel in matches. He was 

 much afflicted with gout, but when well 

 was a fine rider, and steady and honest, 

 as his father was before him. Being occa- 

 sionally called upon to waste, he felt the 

 inconvenience of his disorder, and the 

 following anecdote is related of him : 

 Meeting an itinerant piper towards the end 

 of a long and painful walk, 'Well, old 

 boy,' said he, ( I have heard that music 

 cheers the weary soldier; why should it 

 not enliven the wasting jockey? 1 Come, 

 play a tune, and walk before me to New- 

 market/ Perhaps he had been reading the 

 Mourning Bride. 



A good name is as a precious oint- 

 ment/ and by uniform correct conduct in 

 the saddle, as well as in the stable, John 

 Day a very celebrated jockey has ac- 

 quired that of * honest John.' The endow- 

 ments of nature are not always hereditary, 

 and well for our hero that they are not, for 

 he is the son of a man who weighed twenty 

 stone, whereas he himself can ride seven ! 

 His winning the Newmarket Oatlands on 



1 ' Music has charms ! ' 



