112 FAMOUS RACING MEN. 



of the betting ring. He lent a ready ear to their complaints 

 and grievances ; nor can it be denied that in more than one in- 

 stance he furnished the aggrieved bookmaker, if he chanced not to 

 wield the pen of a ready writer, with a rough copy of the letter, 

 stating his complaint, and addressed to the admiral himself. Upon 

 this letter, his own composition, he then proceeded, with entire 

 and unquestioned impartiality, to pronounce judgment in writing, 

 with the certainty, or at least the vast probability, that both letters 

 would ultimately find their way into print." 



Another modern fashion against which the admiral lifted up his 

 voice with much bitterness was the practice of giving extravagant 

 fees to jockeys, and making pets of these precocious manikins. 

 He was fond of contrasting the custom of such men as Sir Charles 

 Bunbury and the Duke of Grrafton, who thought a £'10 or £'20 note 

 a handsome douceur for winning a Derby or Two Thousand, with 

 that now in vogue of presenting a jockey with such sums as £1,000, 

 or even £2,000 or £3,000; and we need hardly say the contrast was 

 greatly to the disadvantage of the present system, a point on which 

 all sensible men will agree with him. Moreover, with all his in- 

 tense love for the tm'f, he never demeaned himself by admitting 

 trainers or jockeys to mingle as equals in his society, or to sit at 

 his table ; he treated them with uniform consideration and courtesy 

 in their place, but he sternly checked the slightest attempt at 

 presi^mption or familiarity on their part. And his tall, command- 

 ing figure and determined mien had a sufficiently awe-inspiring 

 effect upon his inferiors in social status to prevent the most 

 impudent from daring to take a liberty with him. The admiral 

 was even to the last an enthusiastic lover of the now obsolete 

 pastime of cock fighting, and probably many readers will remember 

 his vigorous and manly defence of that sport in a letter to the 

 Times in 1872. In his manner he was often brusque, and his 

 language and bearing sometimes savoured too strongly of the quarter- 

 deck ; but it must be borne in mind that he belonged to an age 

 of stringent discipline in the service of which he was so distin- 

 guished an ornament : it was impossible to forget the traditions 

 under which he had been trained, and amongst them came first and 

 foremost unquestioning obedience to your superior officer. Yet, 

 when not thwarted. Admiral Rous was a singularly cheery and gay 

 companion. " Vivacious in disposition, fearless and impetuous in 

 argument, abundantly gifted witli what the French call ' the 

 courage of his opinions,' the admiral, with his never-failing health 

 and spirits, and with an eager and intense temperament, always 

 seemed to fill the field of vision surveyed by those who surrounded 

 him. Both at sea and upon land he brooked no rivalry upon the 

 throne that he regarded as his own ; and it was well said of him 

 by a public Avriter that when adversaries arose across his path he 

 resembled the bull in Dryden's Conquest of Granada, and 



' Monarcli-Iike, he raiifieil tlie tented field. 

 And some he trampled down, and some he killed.' " 



