THE FATHER OF THE TURF. 13 



sound and wise piece of legislation then we have to thank Tregon- 

 well Frampton, who, much against his will, thus became a public 

 benefactor. Au reste we do not know that sportsmen have any 

 reason to be grateful to the Father of the Turf, nor is it quite 

 clear that Tregonwell Frampton ever did anything to merit that 

 venerable title. He was rather the progenitor of that objection- 

 able set of men yclept by our grandfathers " Legs," whom an old 

 turf writer describes as " the most unprincipled and abandoned 

 set of thieves and harpies, who ever disgraced civilised society." 

 At the same time, it is impossible to deny that Tregonwell 

 Frampton typified in his own person the most conspicuous features 

 of the turf in our own day — the lowest and least reputable 

 characteristics of a noble sport, and in so far as he did that he 

 may be held to deserve the appellation which is generally assigned 

 him. He died in the year 1728, at the patriarchal age of 86, and lies 

 buried at Newmarket, where the curious in such matters may 

 still read on the walls of the parish church of All Saints' the epitaph, 

 which, with the usual unblushing effrontery of monumental elegies, 

 elaborately sets forth his many virtues. 



COLONEL O'KELLY. 



EVERY school-boy, as Macaulay would have said, has heard 

 of Eclipse, whose name is familiar as a household word, even 

 to those whose knowledge of equine history is of the very slightest 

 description. But there are probably not many persons, even among 

 those interested in the turf, who know much about the owner 

 of the far-famed horse. And yet Denis O'Kelly, who had the 

 good fortune to possess the mighty Eclipse, was a remarkable 

 man in many ways, whose career, full of strange vicissitudes as 

 it was, is unquestionably one of the most interesting and romantic 

 recorded in the History of the British Turf, and well worthy of a 

 foremost place in the bead-roll of famous racing men. He was 

 born in Ireland, but in w4iat portion of it is doubtful. His parents 

 were in a humble position of life, and his brother earned a miserable 

 pittance as a hrogue-maker. Under what circumstances Denis left 

 Ireland is not known, but it is certain that he arrived in London 

 in the year 1748, when he was about twenty years of age. He 

 was then unable to read or write, but being a tall, strapping youth 

 succeeded in obtaining a situation as a sedan-chairman; in which 

 capacity his handsome face and athletic proportions attracted the 

 favourable attention of a lady of title, who loaded him with presents 

 and money, and enabled him to cut a more imposing figure in the 

 world than he had ever done before. Being naturally gifted, as we 

 have said, with great personal attractions — a fine figure, pre- 

 possessing features, and dashing manners — Denis O'Kelly soon 



