04? THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



half-a-mile, even if they possessed the wonderful Nelly 

 Hill knack of starting. The system of a limited handi- 

 cap where a sliding scale of 121bs. for each age, which 

 might be adjusted not more than a fortnight before 

 the race, would be substituted for penalties might be 

 very well adopted in high-class all-aged races, especi- 

 ally in Cups, as penalties act most clumsily and un- 

 fairly on horses when they are past their prime. 



There was a good deal of crossing and unfair work 

 among the inferior jockeys in old times, which would 

 be more heavily noticed now, and in fact it was often 

 thought rather a good joke than otherwise. Captain 

 O' Kelly, whose definition of " the black-legged fra- 

 ternity " took such a very sweeping range, expressed 

 his sentiments on the point at the Abingdon race 

 ordinary (1775),when the terms of a 300 gs. match 

 were being adjusted, and he was requested to stand 

 half. " No ," he roared ; " but if the match had been 

 made cross and jostle, as I proposed, I would have 

 stood all the money ; and by the powers, I'd have 

 brought a spalpeen from Newmarket, no higher than 

 a two-penny loaf, that should have driven his Lord- 

 ship's horse into the furzes, and kept him there for 

 three weeks." Some odd scenes of this kind came 

 off on the race-courses of Yorkshire, whose calendar 

 of native jockeys begins with the Heseltines, William 

 and Robert. This pair flourished in the saddle 

 nearly a hundred years before their decendants, 

 <f Lanty " (who never recovered The Shadow's defeat 

 at Croxton Park), and his nephew " Bob," who was 

 clever and dodgy as ever in his last race (1851) with 

 Lord Cardross, were enrolled among the Hamble- 

 tonians. Samuel Jefferson and Match em Timms, the 

 rider of Buckhunter, were then great rivals; and 

 Fields, Rose, Garnett, Charles Dawson, Cade, John 

 Singleton, and three other Singletons, Thomas Jack- 

 son, Kirton, and the one-eyed Leonard Jewison, suc- 

 ceeded. The latter, who had a very long awkward seat, 



