28 FAMOUS RACING MEN. 



into a hearty laugh. His lordship good-humouredly turned to him, 

 and saying, " So you don't like the name, my boy, eh ? " picked 

 up a piece of chalk, and handing it to the lad added, " Nevertheless 

 we shall have it, and if you can write it up over his corn bin I will 

 give you this crown-piece." The boy took the chalk and wrote 

 " Pot-8-os," and his lordship was so tickled with the lad's ingenious 

 \ersion that he retained this spelling of the word. But to return 

 to the duke. In 1802 Tyrant, ridden by the famous jockey. Buckle, 

 the rival and contemporary of Singleton, Clift and the Arnulls, 

 carried off, from a iield of eight, the Derby Stakes, to which there 

 were in that year but thirty subscribers. From this time forth his 

 grace cared for none but the Pot-8-os blood, and he spared neither 

 money nor trouble to obtain the best specimens of the strain. One 

 of the best sons, perhaps the very best son, of this sire was Waxy, 

 the winner of the Derby in 1793 for Su- F. Poole, and this splendid 

 horse having been secured by the duke, did magnificent service both 

 for him and for his successor in the title. Passing over his grace's 

 triumph in the Oaks in 1804 with Pelisse, a daughter of Whisky, 

 we come to 1809, in which year Pope, a son of Waxy, won the 

 Derby with Goodison on his back, and the following year, which 

 was fated to be the last anniversary of the great race he lived to 

 see, the duke again won the Derby with Whalebone, another son 

 of the same sire (Waxy); but this year, with seeming capriciousness, 

 his grace had another change of jockeys, the winner being ridden 

 by Clift. How good a horse Pot-8-os was is shown by the fact that 

 very nearly half the winners of the Derby claim descent from him. 

 Among the more famous of his descendants may be named Whisky, 

 Moses, Lapdog, Spaniel, Touchstone, Cotherstone, Orlando, Surplice, 

 Teddington, Newminster, Muzjid, Stockwell, Lord Lyon, Blair At hoi. 

 Hermit, Pretender, Doncaster, Gladiateur, Kingston, Caractacus, 

 Silvio, and others. It must be admitted, then, that the British turf 

 owes much to the blood which the Duke of Grafton did so much to 

 improve, and his services in this respect may be set off as a balance 

 against some of the offences with which he has been charged by 

 " Junius." That he was an enthusiastic sportsman is unquestionable, 

 and in this respect he was well imitated by his son, as we shall now 

 proceed to show. 



George Henry Fitzroy, fourth Duke of Grafton, was born in 1760, 

 the year of George III.'s accession, and lived all through that 

 monarch's long reign, the reigns of his two sons, and until his grand- 

 daughter, our present Sovereign, had been seven years on the throne, 

 dying in 1844 at the rij^e and patriarchal age of 84 — a pretty con- 

 vincing proof of the salutary effects of an ardent devotion to field 

 sports. When he was twenty-four years of age he was returned to the 

 House of Commons as member for the University of Cambridge, with 

 William Pitt as his colleague, and, in spite of a long series of most 

 formidable attacks that were made upon the seat by the Opposition, 

 he continued to represent that constituency for twenty-seven years, 



