36 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



Cartwright's hands, was the last of the old school of 

 Yorkshire jockeys. We saw the old man in his great- 

 est glory in 1841, when he succeeded Mr. Orde on 

 the table in the garden behind the Newcastle Grand 

 Stand, to return thanks for the toast of "Robert 

 Johnson and the old mare" which the latter, though 

 he must then have been verging on seventy, proposed 

 with even more than his wonted fire, and wondrous 

 facility of language. Nature never fashioned a more 

 universal genius than the Laird of Nunnykirk. He 

 was not only a " full mau " upon almost every sub- 

 ject, but when his tongue was once loosened with a 

 glass of wine, he fairly made the air crackle round 

 you with his sparkling eloquence and dexterous 

 arguments. The late Professor Buckland, who was 

 starring it at the British Association at Newcastle 

 in 1837, rued the day that ever he tried to run the 

 rig on him about geology, at a private dinner party, 

 quite as much as he did his encounter with Sir 

 William Follett, at Dray ton Manor, .anent Robert 

 Stephenson's great theory of telling whether a line 

 of railway could pay, by putting your ear to the 

 rails, and marking the " wear and tear " vibrations. 

 Of his dress and person he was utterly careless. We 

 have seen him travel second class with his grooms to 

 a race meeting, and when one of the latter remarked 

 that his hat was shabby, he immediately rejoined 

 that he'd change with him, which he did on the spot, 

 to the no small chagrin of the lad, who got deci- 

 dedly the worst of the bargain. On another occa- 

 sion, he was dining out before going to a race ball, 

 where he was to be the Steward ; and on the host 

 asking him, when they had concluded a long argu- 

 ment about the wild imagery of Ossian, if he wished to 

 dress, he merely drew his fingers through his hair, 

 and went off in his plaid trowsers and blue coat, and 

 gloveless, just as he had been all day, and fairly 

 danced the band and the ladies weary. 



