100 FAMOUS KACING MEN. 



would the prosecutor join in the request for a remission of the 

 sentence, though asked to do so by many influential turfites. But 

 imprisonment sat lightly on the shoulders of the doctor : his allow- 

 ance of wine was one quart bottle of champagne per diem, and when 

 that was consumed, he devoted the rest of his waking hours to his 

 favourite subject of research, the Blacklock blood. He was liberated 

 on the 12th of March, 1870, and found the sporting world busy in 

 the discussion of Sir Joseph Hawley's proposals of Turf Reform ; for 

 the " lucky baronet " was setting up for a reformer, advocating the 

 abolition of two-year-old races, and preaching on the immorality of 

 "plunging ;" these two things together, he foretold, would infallibly 

 destroy the turf if not nipped in the bud, a prophecy which, it must 

 be admitted, came somewhat incongruously from a man who had won 

 the Middle Park Plate twice in the first three years of its existence, 

 and who had probably secured as much of the plungers' money as any 

 half-dozen bookmakers put together. Nay, more, at the very time 

 he was urging these reforms, the cherry and black was being carried 

 at Northampton and other meetings by his two-year-olds ; and Sir 

 Joseph himself, in the winter, had taken £40,000 to £600 a-piece 

 about his five fillies in the Derby. So much for consistency ! Yet, 

 despite the conflict between the practice and doctrine of the preacher, 

 it must be admitted that there was much truth in his arguments, 

 and that it would have been well if the heads of the Jockey Club had 

 taken them into earnest consideration, for they are more or less the 

 panacea prescribed by all genuine and honest turf refoiTaers. In 

 the Senate of the Turf, however, they were successfully opposed, and 

 the general opinion was that the reforms suggested were either im- 

 practicable or inconvenient. That Sir Joseph was disappointed at 

 the rejection of his proposals there can be no doubt, but there was 

 nothing to show that his interest in the great sport, to which he had 

 devoted so much of his life, abated on that account. He was, to the 

 last, as keen a lover of the turf as when Miami first made him feel the 

 pride of winning a great classical race. Sir Joseph Hawley died on 

 the 20th April, 1875, in the 62nd year of his age; and, having no 

 issue, was succeeded in the title and estates by his brother. Take 

 him for all in all, though he was rather a fortunate than a scientific 

 breeder. Sir Joseph Hawley was a man the turf could ill afford to 

 lose ; for, like Lord Falmouth, he spared no pains in the selection of 

 his stud, and thus did much to improve the breed of horses through- 

 out the country. 



ME. JAMES MEEEY. 



FIFTY years ago Scotland could boast of a gallant band of 

 sportsmen to which she might have challenged the world 

 to produce an equal. Men like Sir David Baird, the hardest rider, 

 not barring even Assheton-Smith and Dick Christian, that ever 



